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Trump urges Russia to stop attacks; Rubio says US might walk away from peace efforts

Zelenskiy wrote on the messaging app Telegram that his top military commander reported that Russia had already conducted nearly 70 attacks on Sunday.

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President Donald Trump urged Russia on Sunday to stop its attacks in Ukraine while his top diplomat said the United States might walk away from peace efforts if it does not see progress, Reuters reported.

Speaking to reporters in New Jersey, Trump said he was disappointed that Russia has continued to attack Ukraine, and said his one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the Vatican on Saturday had gone well.

“I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture, and I think he wants to make a deal,” Trump said of Zelenskiy.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said the Trump administration might abandon its attempts to broker a deal if Russia and Ukraine do not make headway.

“It needs to happen soon,” Rubio told the NBC program “Meet the Press.'” “We cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it’s not going to come to fruition.”

Trump and Zelenskiy, in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, met in a Vatican basilica on Saturday to try to revive faltering efforts to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting was the first between the two leaders since an angry encounter in the White House Oval Office in February and comes at a critical time in negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the conflict, read the report.

Trump rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin after that meeting, saying on social media that there is “no reason” for Russia to shoot missiles into civilian areas.

In a pre-taped interview that aired on the CBS program “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would continue to target sites used by Ukraine’s military. When asked about a Russian strike on Kyiv last week that killed civilians, Lavrov said that “the target attacked was not something absolutely civilian” and that Russia targets only “sites which are used by the military.”

Zelenskiy wrote on the messaging app Telegram that his top military commander reported that Russia had already conducted nearly 70 attacks on Sunday.

“The situation at the front and the real activity of the Russian army prove that there is currently insufficient pressure on Russia from the world to end this war,” Zelenskiy said.

Ukrainian and European officials pushed back last week against some U.S. proposals on how to end the war, making counterproposals on issues from territory to sanctions.

American proposals called for U.S. recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow seized and annexed in 2014, as well as de facto recognition of Russia’s hold on other parts of Ukraine.

In contrast, the European and Ukrainian proposal defers detailed discussion about territory until after a ceasefire is concluded.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that Ukraine should not agree to the American proposal, saying it went too far in ceding swathes of territory in return for a ceasefire.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said the U.S. president has “expressed his frustration” at both Putin and Zelenskiy but remains determined to help negotiate an agreement. Waltz also said the United States and Ukraine would eventually reach an agreement over rare earth minerals, Reuters reported.

Chuck Schumer, the top U.S. Senate Democrat, said on Sunday that he is concerned Trump will “cave in to Putin.”

“To just abandon Ukraine, after all the sacrifice that they made, after so much loss of life, and with the rallying of the whole West against Putin, it would just be a moral tragedy,” Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

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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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