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Zelenskiy says he is willing to quit presidency if it means peace in Ukraine

The Ukrainian president also said he wanted to see Trump as a partner for Ukraine and more than a simply a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he was willing to give up his position if it meant peace in Ukraine, adding that he could exchange his departure for his country’s entry into the NATO military alliance, Reuters reported.

“If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” an irritated-looking Zelenskiy said when asked during a press conference whether he was ready to leave his post if it meant securing peace.

“I can exchange this for NATO (membership), if that condition is there, immediately,” the president added.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for elections to take place in Ukraine, having branded Zelenskiy a “dictator”, an apparent reference to the Ukrainian leader’s official five-year term running out in 2024. Russia has cited this in the past to assert that he is an illegitimate leader, read the report.

Ukrainian legislation prohibits holding elections during a state of martial law, which Ukraine declared the day Russia invaded in February 2022. Trump also falsely claimed that Zelenskiy has an approval rating of four percent.

“I am not going to be in power for decades, but we will not allow Putin to be in power over the territories of Ukraine either,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A poll released this week put Zelenskiy’s approval ratings at 63%, and he made reference to this when talking about Trump’s claims on Sunday, calling his false statements “dangerous”.

“I believe it’s not a mistake, it’s misinformation that has an impact,” Zelenskiy said.

Zelenskiy said earlier this week Trump was in a “disinformation bubble”, angering the U.S. President and his team. On Sunday, he sought to justify the earlier comments.”(The information) about four percent of Ukrainians supporting me is one of the signals spread by the Russians, that’s why I said it was a disinformation attack, I didn’t say it was President Trump,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday.

Trump’s criticism of Zelenskiy came as relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.

Zelenskiy opposes the idea of elections in a full-scale war, a position backed by his major domestic political opponents.

The Ukrainian president also said he wanted to see Trump as a partner for Ukraine and more than a simply a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.

“I really want it to be more than just mediation… that’s not enough,” he told a press conference in Kyiv.

Trump has said Ukraine should give the U.S. $500 billion in critical raw materials as payback for aid which Kyiv has already received from the previous Joe Biden administration.

Zelenskiy declined to sign a detailed U.S. proposal last week that would have seen Washington receiving 50% of Ukraine’s critical minerals, which include graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium, the latter a key component in electric car batteries, Reuters reported.

He has said he wants to do a deal, but that it should offer security guarantees for Ukraine in return.

On Friday, he said U.S. and Ukrainian teams were working on a deal and Trump said he expects a deal will be signed soon.

On Sunday, Zelenskiy said at the press conference that he rejected the idea that Ukraine owed the U.S. $500 billion.

“There cannot be (any) format which makes us debtors for the old (aid given).”

Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Washington had supplied his country with $67 billion in weapons and $31.5 billion in direct budget support throughout the nearly three-year war with Russia.

“I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will be repaying,” Zelenskiy said of the minerals deal.

Ukraine’s economy minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said on Sunday the 18% of Ukraine under Russian occupation contained about $350 billion of critical raw materials, adding that Ukraine is conducting additional geological research to update decades-old information, read the report.

The president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday that he had held constructive new talks with senior U.S. officials on a deal to develop Ukrainian minerals.

“We are moving forward with our work. This was a constructive discussion,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.

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Death toll from migrant rush into Spanish enclave in North Africa rises to 72

Authorities have reinforced police and army patrols. A 500-metre (1,600-foot) floating barrier was installed off Ceuta on Saturday.

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The death toll from a mass rush of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta last week reached at least 72 ‌on Sunday, as five more bodies were found along the North African coast, officials said, Reuters reported.

The number of fatalities was considerably higher than what was announced by Moroccan authorities on Sunday.

More than 50,000 people crossed into Ceuta by land and sea in an unprecedented surge that began on Thursday at one of the European Union’s only two land borders ​with Africa, prompting alarm across the bloc. More than 48,000 returned to Morocco within 48 hours and more did so over the weekend, Spanish authorities ​said.

The Spanish government representative in Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez, told reporters on Sunday that, in addition to the 72 fatalities, ⁠more than 1,000 people had been treated by health services. The situation in the enclave had improved markedly, he said, but more remained to be ​done to re-establish normality.

Some migrants drowned and others were crushed while trying to climb a breakwater and border fence. Many had been driven to migrate by ​economic hardship and encouraged by social media rumours.

Morocco’s Interior Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that 11 people had died, mostly by drowning while trying to cross into Spanish territory, noting that it was fact-checking reports on deaths from the other side of the border, read the report.

The ministry blamed the rush of migrants on social media misinformation, human ​trafficking networks and misinterpretation of a Spanish ruling banning immediate returns of migrants intercepted at sea. That statement is similar to the Spanish Foreign Ministry’s comments on ​the matter.

Moroccan authorities set the number of those involved in the crossing at 40,000, far lower than the figure used by Spanish officials, adding that 1,135 were ‌stopped from ⁠entering Melilla, another Spanish enclave.

The statement reiterated that Morocco was committed to countering illegal migration and called for the burden of managing migration to be shared.

“It pains me deeply that young people are dying at sea. It’s not right that, in the year 2026, women with children as young as two months old should be crossing the sea only to die,” Karima Abenaz, a French national in Ceuta with family in Morocco, said while holding back tears.

“In ​Morocco, there’s food, there’s everything we need,” she added. “If we don’t have ​a decent job, we should go ⁠on strike and demand our rights from the government. We shouldn’t be dying at sea, it’s not right.”

Ceuta leader Juan Jesus Vivas told the newspaper El Pais the city’s morgue had received 88 corpses, including some who had died in earlier, smaller ​attempts to reach the territory in hazardous night-time swims over the past two weeks. He said Moroccan authorities ​were also recovering bodies ⁠from the sea, but no official information was available.

Authorities have reinforced police and army patrols. A 500-metre (1,600-foot) floating barrier was installed off Ceuta on Saturday.

Twenty-two European Union member states wrote a letter asking for coordinated action to protect external borders and other measures after the Ceuta incident. Italy suspended passport-free Schengen travel arrangements with Spain for one month, Reuters reported.

Spain has ⁠adopted a ​more open stance on migrants than most other EU countries, introducing a programme to grant residency ​to more than half a million undocumented people.

It has rejected suggestions that the scheme encouraged the rush into Ceuta, saying that those who entered the enclave irregularly could not travel on to ​mainland Spain or elsewhere in the Schengen zone.

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Three killed, two injured in shooting at Idaho shopping center

Authorities said at least two other people were wounded and transported for medical treatment. Their conditions were not immediately released.

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Three people, including the suspected gunman, were killed and at least two others were injured after a shooting at a busy shopping area in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Saturday, local authorities said.

The incident occurred at around 2:30 p.m. local time near an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in a high-traffic commercial district, according to Josh Palmer, the city’s public information coordinator.

Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said the suspected shooter was among the dead and confirmed that the threat to the community had been eliminated.

“At this point, the shooter is no longer a threat,” Hicks told reporters, adding that investigators are working to identify the suspect and determine a motive for the attack.

Authorities said at least two other people were wounded and transported for medical treatment. Their conditions were not immediately released.

Following the shooting, the Twin Falls Police Department temporarily closed roads surrounding the scene, including a nearby bridge, as officers secured the area and launched an investigation.

Twin Falls, with a population of about 47,400, is located in Idaho’s Magic Valley region.

Police have not yet released additional details about the victims or the circumstances surrounding the shooting, and the investigation remains ongoing.

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Saar: Trade shifts from Pakistan to Central Asia and Iran discussed

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