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Putin announces May 8-10 ceasefire, Ukraine wants truce now

Putin’s announcement came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on Sunday. The White House said Trump wanted a permanent ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, read the report.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in May in the war with Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two, Reuters reported.

Putin’s move appeared aimed at signalling that Russia is still interested in peace – something that Ukraine and its European allies dispute – as President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington grows impatient with stuttering efforts toward peace.

The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run on May 8, May 9 – when Putin will host international leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping for lavish celebrations to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany – and May 10.

Kyiv questioned why Putin would not agree to its call for an immediate ceasefire lasting at least 30 days to pave the way for diplomacy.

“For some reason, everyone is supposed to wait for May 8 and only then have a ceasefire to ensure calm for Putin during the parade,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “We value people’s lives and not parades.”

Russia has said it wants a full settlement, not a pause.

Putin’s announcement came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on Sunday. The White House said Trump wanted a permanent ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, read the report.

“While President Trump welcomes Vladimir Putin’s willingness to pause the conflict, the president has been very clear he wants a permanent ceasefire and to bring this conflict to a peaceful resolution,” said National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes.

“All military actions are suspended for this period. Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example,” the Kremlin said in a statement on the May 8-10 ceasefire.

“In the event of violations by the Ukrainian side, Russia’s armed forces will give an adequate and effective response.”

It was the second unilateral truce announcement that Putin has made in quick succession, following a 30-hour Easter ceasefire that each side accused the other of violating countless times.

It came after Trump criticised Putin for a deadly Russian attack on Kyiv last week and voiced concern at the weekend that Putin was “just tapping me along”. Washington has repeatedly threatened to abandon its peace efforts unless there is real progress.

Rubio in a call with Lavrov on Sunday “underscored to his Russian counterpart the next steps in Russia-Ukraine peace talks and the need to end the war now,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement on Monday, without offering more details.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Lavrov “highlighted the importance of reinforcing the emerging conditions necessary to launch negotiations aimed at establishing a reliable framework for long-term, sustainable peace.”

The Kremlin said Moscow wants direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions.”

Lavrov, in a written interview with Brazil’s O Globo newspaper on Monday, said that as well as ruling out Ukraine’s membership of NATO, a settlement should include “demilitarizing and de-Nazifying Ukraine” and international recognition of four regions of Ukraine that Russia has partially occupied since 2022 and claimed as its own, Reuters reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the signal for direct talks should come from Ukraine, as it currently had a “legal ban” on negotiating with Putin.

He was referring to a 2022 decree in which Zelenskiy ruled out such negotiations, after Russia had claimed four Ukrainian regions as its own in an action condemned as illegal by most countries at the United Nations.

Ukraine accuses Russia of playing for time in order to try to seize more of its territory, and has urged greater international pressure to get Moscow to stop fighting.

Russia accuses Ukraine of being unwilling to make any concessions and of seeking a ceasefire only on its own terms.

Trump on Sunday urged Russia to stop its attacks in Ukraine and suggested Zelenskiy was ready to give up Crimea, which Russia seized from it in 2014.

Zelenskiy said earlier this month that doing so would violate Ukraine’s constitution. Kyiv has not commented on Trump’s comments on Sunday regarding Crimea.

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Small plane crashes into San Diego neighborhood, killing at least 2

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At least two people were killed and eight others injured on Thursday when a small plane crashed in a San Diego neighborhood where military families lived, damaging houses and vehicles.

The crash occurred around 3:45 a.m. local time (1045 GMT) in a military housing complex in the Tierrasanta neighborhood, local officials said. The crash site is a little more than 2 miles east of Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, Reuters reported.

It was unclear how many people were onboard the plane when it crashed. Police said they believed no one on the ground was killed but could not immediately confirm that.

“We had a plane that had come through this neighborhood, taking out one home,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Assistant Chief Dan Eddy said at a news conference in front of a damaged home.

When fire crews arrived on scene, they found one home and multiple vehicles on fire, Eddy said.

The San Diego Police Department reported two people were confirmed dead and eight others were injured, as of 11 a.m. Thursday.

Only one person with minor injuries was transported to a hospital as of Thursday morning, Eddy said.

About 100 people were evacuated from homes in the neighborhood as of late Thursday morning.

The plane was identified as a Cessna 550 by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane, whose route originated in the Midwest, was bound for San Diego, Eddy said.

The tract where the crash occurred is managed by Liberty Military Housing, officials said.

“We are actively working with all military families affected, specifically within this region, because they may be out of their homes for a while,” said Captain Bob Heely, commanding officer of Naval Base San Diego.

Heely said he was working with Liberty Military Housing and the Red Cross to provide temporary housing to the affected families.

“As you can see, the damage behind us is incredibly significant, was life-threatening, and thank God nobody on the ground was killed,” Raul Campillo, a member of the San Diego City Council, said at a news conference near the crash site.

The crash will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

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Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held

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Two Israeli embassy staff were killed in a shooting outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, and a suspect is in custody, officials said.

A man and a woman were shot and killed in the area of 3rd and F streets in Northwest which is near the museum, an FBI field office and the U.S. attorney’s office. They were a young couple about to be engaged to be married, the Israeli ambassador said, Reuters reported.

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said a single suspect who was seen pacing outside the museum before the event was in custody. The suspect, tentatively identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, chanted “Free Palestine, Free Palestine,” in custody, she said.

The suspect had no previous contact with police, she added.

President Donald Trump condemned the shooting. “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” he said in a message on Truth Social. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also condemned the incident.

Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, said two of its staff members were shot “at close range” while attending a Jewish event at the museum.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X:

“We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said he and his team had been briefed on the shooting.

“While we’re working with (Metropolitan Police Department) to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families,” he wrote on X.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called the shooting “a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.”

“Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line,” Danon said in a post on X. “We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro were at the scene of the shooting.

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Trump calls his own foreign aid cuts at USAID ‘devastating’

Washington was funding 17% of the country’s HIV budget before the cuts. In the months since, testing and monitoring of HIV patients across South Africa has decreased, Reuters has reported.

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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its aid programs worldwide have been “devastating.”, Reuters reported.

Speaking beside South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a White House visit, Trump was asked about his cutting most foreign aid by a reporter who said the decision had significant impacts in Africa.

“It’s devastating, and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“I’ve talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too, and we’ve spent a lot. And it’s a big – it’s a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps.”

The State Department, which manages USAID, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration has repeatedly defended the cuts, saying they were focused on wasted funds. The gutting of the agency, largely overseen by South Africa-born businessman Elon Musk, is the subject of several federal lawsuits, read the report.

The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data.

The U.S. spent half a billion dollars on South African aid in 2023, mostly on healthcare, the most recent data shows. Most of that funding has been withdrawn, though it is unclear exactly how much.

The cuts have had an effect on the country’s response to the HIV epidemic. South Africa has the world’s highest burden of HIV, with about 8 million people – one in five adults – living with the virus, Reuters reported.

Washington was funding 17% of the country’s HIV budget before the cuts. In the months since, testing and monitoring of HIV patients across South Africa has decreased, Reuters has reported.

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