Trump tells Putin to make Ukraine deal ‘now’ or face tougher sanctions

Trump tells Putin to make Ukraine deal ‘now’ or face tougher sanctions
US President Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine Wednesday, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. (AFP/File)
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Updated 22 January 2025
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Trump tells Putin to make Ukraine deal ‘now’ or face tougher sanctions

Trump tells Putin to make Ukraine deal ‘now’ or face tougher sanctions
  • “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions,” Trump said
  • Trump said he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and had “always had a very good relationship with President Putin“

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine Wednesday, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war.
Trump’s warning in a Truth Social post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump said.
Trump said he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and had “always had a very good relationship with President Putin,” a leader for whom he has expressed admiration in the past.
“All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.”
He added: “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’“
Russia already faces crushing US sanctions over the war since invading Ukraine in 2022 and trade has slowed to a trickle. Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden’s administration imposed sweeping sanctions against Moscow’s energy sector earlier this month.
But Trump — a billionaire tycoon famed for his book “The Art of the Deal” — and his administration reportedly believe there are ways of toughening measures to press Putin.
The United States imported $2.9 billion in goods from Russia from January to November 2024 — down sharply from $4.3 billion over the same period in 2023, according to the US Department of Commerce.
Top US imports from Russia include fertilizers and precious metals.
It was Trump’s toughest line on Putin since he returned to the White House this week, and comes despite fears that it was Kyiv rather than Moscow that he would strongarm into making a peace deal.
During a White House press conference on Tuesday Trump said only that it “sounds likely” that he would apply additional sanctions if Putin did not come to the table.
The US president however declined to say whether he would continue Biden’s policy of sending billions of dollars in weaponry to help Ukraine.
“We’re looking at that,” he said at the press conference. “We’re talking to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, we’re going to be talking to President Putin very soon.”
Trump has also said he expects to meet Putin — with whom he had a summit in his first term in Helsinki — soon.
Prior to beginning his new inauguration on Monday, Trump had vowed to end Ukraine war “within 24 hours” and before even taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make territorial concessions to Moscow.
But his promised breakthrough has proved elusive.
In unusually critical remarks of Putin on Monday, Trump said the Russian president was “destroying Russia by not making a deal.”
Trump added that Zelensky had told him he wanted a peace agreement to end the war.
Putin congratulated Trump on his inauguration for a second term on Monday.
The Russian leader added that he was “open to dialogue” on Ukraine conflict with Trump’s incoming US administration, adding he hoped any settlement would ensure “lasting peace.”
Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, whose hyper-masculine style and professed attachment to traditional values has increasingly found favor among some US Christian conservatives.
US special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI both investigated alleged collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — which Trump in his post on Wednesday dubbed once again the “Russia hoax.”
Mueller won convictions of six members of the Trump campaign but said he found no evidence of criminal cooperation with Russia by the Trump campaign.


Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University

Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University
Updated 58 min 31 sec ago
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Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University

Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University
  • "Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus," Warsaw Police said
  • Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student

WARSAW: Police said on Wednesday they had detained a 22-year-old Polish man after he killed one person with an axe at Warsaw University, in an attack the institution described as a "huge tragedy".
"Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus. One person died, another was taken to hospital with injuries," Warsaw Police said in a statement on X.
They said the incident occurred at around 6:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), when the man attacked people on the campus with an axe, adding that the detainee was a 22-year-old Polish citizen.
Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student.
Private broadcaster Polsat News reported that a woman's severed head and an axe had been found at the university.
A spokesperson for the district prosecutor's office declined to comment on whether a severed head had been found.
The spokesperson said that a female administrative employee of the university had been killed at the scene and a security guard was injured and was taken to hospital in critical condition.
He said that the attacker had entered an auditorium at the university.
Reuters reporters at the scene saw police vans and a cordon around the auditorium where the attack took place.
The Rector of the University of Warsaw said in a statement that May 8 would be a day of mourning at the institution, calling the attack a "huge tragedy".
"We express our great sorrow and sympathy to the family and loved ones," the statement read.


Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence

Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence
Updated 07 May 2025
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Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence

Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence
  • Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species

NAIROBI: Two Belgian teenagers found with 5,000 ants in Kenya were given a choice of paying a fine of $7,700 or serving 12 months in prison — the maximum penalty for the offense — for violating wildlife conservation laws.

Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.

Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. They were charged on April 15.

Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, said in her ruling that despite the teenagers telling the court they were naïve and collecting the ants as a hobby, the particular species of ants they collected is valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few.

The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the teenagers were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.

“This is beyond a hobby. Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cepholates online,” Thuku said in her ruling.

The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits,” KWS said in a statement.

Duh Hung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, told the court that he was sent to pick up the ants and arrived at Kenya’s main airport where he met his contact person, Dennis Ng’ang’a, and together they traveled to meet the locals who sell the ants.

Ng’ang’a, who is from Kenya, had said he didn’t know it was illegal because ants are sold and eaten locally.


Bill Gates meets Indonesian leader to discuss development initiatives

Bill Gates meets Indonesian leader to discuss development initiatives
Updated 07 May 2025
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Bill Gates meets Indonesian leader to discuss development initiatives

Bill Gates meets Indonesian leader to discuss development initiatives
  • Gates’ foundation is developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia

JAKARTA: Bill Gates was in Indonesia on Wednesday to discuss health and sustainable development initiatives with the leader of the world’s fourth most populous country.

Gates met President Prabowo Subianto at the colonial-style Merdeka palace in Jakarta to discuss global health, nutrition, financial inclusion and public digital infrastructure, Indonesia’s presidential office said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

The co-founder of Microsoft and Gates Foundation praised Indonesia’s adoption of vaccines against Rotavirus for diarrhea and Pneumococcus for pneumonia and the country’s efforts in reducing child mortality.

He said 10 million children under the age of five worldwide died when his foundation launched in 2000, with 90 percent of the deaths due to diarrhea, pneumonia or malaria. That number has now been cut in half to below 5 million, Gates said.

“It’s been an amazing time period. And there’s many new tools coming,” he told the meeting, which was also attended by prominent Indonesian businesspeople and philanthropists.

Gates’ foundation is currently developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia, Subianto said.

“This is crucial because TB is still a deadly disease in the country,” he said.

Gates said that because rich countries don’t have tuberculosis, “it just doesn’t get hardly any money for diagnostics or drugs or vaccines.”

Gates has granted more than $159 million to Indonesia since 2009.

Much of it was allocated to the health sector, especially for vaccine procurement, Subianto said. 

Thanks to the funds, Subianto said Biofarma, a state-run pharmaceutical company, now can produce 2 billion doses of its polio vaccine every year, benefiting more than 900 million people in 42 countries.


France says Algeria has issued arrest warrants for writer Daoud

France says Algeria has issued arrest warrants for writer Daoud
Updated 07 May 2025
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France says Algeria has issued arrest warrants for writer Daoud

France says Algeria has issued arrest warrants for writer Daoud

PARIS: Algeria has issued two arrest warrants for acclaimed French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, the French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, as tensions surge between the two countries.

The Algerian judiciary informed France of the move, the Foreign Ministry said.

“We are monitoring and will continue to monitor developments in this situation closely,” he said, stressing that Daoud was “a renowned and respected author” and that France was committed to freedom of expression.

In 2024, Daoud won France’s top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel “Houris,” centered on Algeria’s civil war between the government and radicals in the 1990s.

The novel, banned in Algeria, tells the story of a young woman who loses her voice when a hard-liner cuts her throat as she witnesses her family being massacred during the war.

In November, the woman, Saada Arbane, told Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the main character in the book is based on her experiences. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane’s life.

Arbane says she told her story during a course of treatment with a psychotherapist who became Daoud’s wife in 2016. 

She has accused Daoud of using the details narrated during their therapy sessions in his book.


UN appoints special envoy to combat Islamophobia

New position will be filled by Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain. (File/AFP)
New position will be filled by Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain. (File/AFP)
Updated 07 May 2025
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UN appoints special envoy to combat Islamophobia

New position will be filled by Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain. (File/AFP)
  • Former Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will serve in new role
  • UN observes International Day to Combat Islamophobia on March 15

NEW YORK CITY: The UN has appointed a special envoy to combat Islamophobia in a bid to fight anti-Muslim hatred around the world.

The new position will be filled by Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain, who also serves as high representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative to combat extremism.

Moratinos previously served in the Spanish government and worked closely with the UN during his time as foreign minister from 2004 to 2010.

He also served as EU special representative for the Middle East peace process from 1996 to 2003.

In that role, he promoted peace agreements and attempted to foster dialogue between Israel and the Arab world.

He also served as Spanish ambassador to Israel in 1996.

The UN marks International Day to Combat Islamophobia each year on March 15. The day was first observed following a resolution put forward by Pakistan that was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2022.

The document was sponsored by the 60 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

This year on March 15, Moratinos spoke out against the “bigotry and dehumanizing rhetoric” that Muslims “have to quite often face in many parts of the world.”

“Hate speech drives wedge between communities, sparks fear and anger and may often lead to violence which threatens peace and stability in societies,” he said.

“All forms of hate should be rooted out wherever and whenever it occurs. This means pushing for policies that fully respect human rights and protect religious and cultural identities, particularly of minorities.

“This means investing in social cohesion by encouraging initiatives that promote dialogue, mutual respect and protects human rights and the dignity of all.”