Category: Foreign

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British government considers removing former Prince Andrew from the royal line of succession

The British government is considering formally removing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession once the police investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office has concluded, a source familiar with the deliberations told NBC News.

Any such move would require an act of Parliament, a lengthy and politically uncertain process that would also likely have to be approved by other Commonwealth countries, such as Canada and Australia, where the British monarch is the head of state.

The former Prince Andrew became the first British royal in centuries to be arrested Thursday. He was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office and released “under investigation” hours later, meaning he has been neither charged nor exonerated.

The Thames Valley Police force earlier this month said it was looking into a claim that the former prince, while serving as the United Kingdom’s trade envoy in 2010, had shared confidential documents with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein but has made no comment on his arrest this week or allegations arising from the recent release of Epstein files.

Previously, the controversy swirling around Mountbatten-Windsor centered on the accusations of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleged that Epstein trafficked her to his powerful friends, including the former prince. In 2022, the royal reached a settlement in a sexual assault case brought by Giuffre for an undisclosed amount without admitting any wrongdoing. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied ever having met Guiffre, who died by suicide last year.

Despite being stripped of his remaining royal titles last year, Mountbatten-Windsor remains eighth in line to succeed his brother King Charles III, though it is highly unlikely he would ever be crowned.

At birth, he was second in line to succeed his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, behind Charles, but he has moved steadily down the line as Charles’ own family has grown.

Mountbatten-Windsor is now behind Prince William and his three children, as well as Prince Harry and his two children.

In October, amid a renewed storm of controversy over Mountbatten-Windsor’s friendship with Epstein, Charles stripped his brother of his princely title and ordered him to leave his Windsor residence, the Royal Lodge.

However, no action was taken to remove him from the royal line of succession, and Buckingham Palace also did not take other steps, such as seeking the formal abolition of Mountbatten-Windsor’s Duke of York title, that would have required cooperation from British lawmakers.

At the time, the palace cited concerns about taking up parliamentary time on the issue.

A poll by YouGov on Friday found 82% of Britons now believe that Mountbatten-Windsor should be removed from the line of succession.

A move to exclude a named royal from the line of succession is without precedent in modern times, with royal rule continuing largely unaltered since the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936.

Reforms to royal succession were passed in 2013 to give male and female royals an equal right to the throne in future, ending centuries of male-preference primogeniture. The reforms also abolished centuries-old rules that disqualified royals who married a Catholic from the line of succession. (NBC)

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UN marks fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The United Nations on Tuesday marked four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine with a high-level debate and renewed calls to end the war.

The General Assembly also passed a resolution reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Meeting in an emergency special session on Ukraine at UN Headquarters in New York, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution titled “Support for lasting peace in Ukraine.”

The General Assembly called for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

The text reaffirmed the Assembly’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in line with the UN Charter, the exchange of prisoners of war, and the return of civilians forcibly transferred, including children.

The resolution was adopted by 107 votes in favour, including Nigeria, 12 against and 51 abstentions.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, in a statement, said the invasion was a violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.

“This devastating war is a stain on our collective consciousness and remains a threat to regional and international peace and security.

“The longer the war continues, the deadlier it becomes. Civilians bear the brunt of this conflict, with 2025 witnessing the largest number of civilians killed in Ukraine.

“This is simply unacceptable. I reiterate my call for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire as a first step towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace,” he said.

According to him, for peace to be just, it must be in line with the UN Charter, international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, respecting Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“The United Nations remains ready to contribute to all efforts towards this end,” he added. (Punch)

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After court ruling, Trump says U.S. global tariff rate will rise from 10% to 15%


President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will raise a temporary tariff from 10% to 15% on U.S. imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, after the U.S. Supreme ‌Court struck down his previous tariff program.

The move came less than 24 hours after Trump announced a 10% across-the-board tariff on Friday after the court’s decision. The ruling found the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed an array of higher rates under an economic emergency law.

The new levies are grounded in a separate ‌but untested law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15% but requires congressional approval ⁠to extend them after 150 days. No president has previously invoked Section 122, and its use could ⁠lead to further legal challenges.

Trade ⁠experts and congressional aides are skeptical the Republican-majority Congress would extend the tariffs, given polls that show growing numbers of Americans blame ‌the duties for higher prices.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he would use the 150-day ⁠period to work on issuing other “legally permissible” tariffs. The administration intends to ⁠rely on two other statutes that permit import taxes on specific products or countries based on investigations into national security or unfair trade practices.

“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully ⁠allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

The Section 122 tariffs include exemptions for certain products, including ⁠critical minerals, metals and energy products, according to the White ‌House.

Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade official and senior vice president at the Asia Society think tank, said she was surprised Trump had not opted for the maximum Section 122 rate on Friday, adding that his rapid-fire change underscored the uncertainty trading partners faced.

The Supreme Court’s decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, concluded the law Trump had used for most of his tariffs, the International Emergency Economic ‌Powers Act, did not grant the president the powers he claimed.

Roberts was joined in the majority by fellow conservatives Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both Trump appointees, and the court’s three liberal justices.

Trump reacted with fury to the ruling, calling the justices in the majority “fools” and describing Gorsuch and Barrett in particular as “embarrassments,” while vowing to continue his global trade war.

Some foreign leaders applauded the decision. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday the ruling showed it is good for democracies to have counterweights to power and the rule of law.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he expected the decision would ease the burden on German companies. He said he would use his upcoming U.S. trip ​to reiterate that “tariffs harm everyone.” (JapanToday)

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Parliamentary aide among 11 arrested over killing of French far-right activist

Eleven suspects, including a parliamentary aide to France’s hard-left party, have been arrested in connection with the killing last week of a far-right activist in an incident that has shocked the country and laid bare its deep political divisions.

Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after sustaining a severe brain injury. The Lyon prosecutor, Thierry Dran, said he had been “thrown to the ground and beaten by at least six individuals” during an incident last week.

The attack took place as Deranque, a mathematics student, was on the sidelines of a protest against a university conference attended by Rima Hassan, a European member of parliament for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s leftwing party, La France Insoumise (LFI).

The anti-immigration Némésis collective, which was protesting against the conference, said at the weekend that Deranque had been there to protect its members and was assaulted by anti-fascist activists. Hassan and other members of LFI have condemned the killing.

The incident has inflamed political tensions in France in the run-up to next month’s municipal elections as well as the 2027 presidential race, in which polls suggest the far-right National Rally (RN) could achieve its best result to date.

The first wave of arrests was announced late on Tuesday, as Dran said nine suspects had been arrested. Those detained included people who were suspected of having participated in the violence and others who had provided support to them, sources told Agence France-Presse.

Hours later, two more suspects were arrested: a man who the prosecutor said was suspected of being directly linked to the violence as well as his partner, who was suspected of trying to help him evade justice.

The LFI politician Raphaël Arnault confirmed that his parliamentary assistant was among those detained, adding the aide had “ceased all parliamentary work”.

On Wednesday, as news of the arrests spread, the LFI said it had been forced to evacuate its national headquarters. “The national headquarters of LFI have just been evacuated following a bomb threat,” the party’s coordinator, Manuel Bompard, said on social media. “Police services are on site. All employees and activists are safe.”

As videos of last week’s deadly confrontation continued to circulate on social media, Mélenchon called for calm. “Let’s not fuel the incitement to take the law into one’s own hands,” the LFI leader said on social media.

Images broadcast by TF1 of the alleged attack showed several people hitting three others who were lying on the ground, two of whom managed to escape. One witness told AFP: “People were hitting each other with iron bars.”

Némésis, the anti-immigration collective linked to Deranque, has blamed the killing on La Jeune Garde (Young Guard), an anti-fascist youth group co-founded by Arnault before he was elected to parliament. La Jeune Garde – which was dissolved in June – has denied any links to the “tragic events” and Arnault has called the killing “horrific”.

While the government has singled out LFI and La Jeune Garde, the Lyon prosecutor on Monday declined to comment on those claims, instead telling reporters that the investigation was looking into suspected “intentional homicide” and aggravated assault.

Politicians held a minute of silence on Tuesday afternoon at France’s national assembly in memory of Deranque, while a march is expected to be held in Lyon next Saturday in his honour.

In a post this weekend, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, addressed the incident and called for calm. “It is essential that the perpetrators of this ignominy be prosecuted, brought to justice and convicted. Hatred that kills has no place among us,” he wrote on social media. “I call for calm, restraint and respect.” (Guardian)

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Former Prince Andrew arrested and held for hours on suspicion of misconduct over ties to Epstein

The former Prince Andrew was arrested and held for hours by British police Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment.

It was the first time in nearly four centuries that a senior British royal was placed under arrest, and it underscored how deference to the monarchy has eroded in recent years.

King Charles III, whose late mother lived by the motto “never complain, never explain,” took the unusual step of issuing a statement on the arrest of his brother, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,’’ the king said. “As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter.’’

The Thames Valley Police force said Mountbatten-Windsor was released Thursday evening, about 11 hours after he was detained at his home in eastern England. He was photographed in a car leaving the station near his home on the royal Sandringham Estate.

Police said he was released under investigation, meaning he has neither been charged nor exonerated. Police said they had finished searching Mountbatten-Windsor’s home, but officers were still searching his former residence near Windsor Castle.

The police force, which covers areas west of London, including Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, said Thursday that a man in his 60s from Norfolk in eastern England, had been arrested and was in custody. Police did not identify the suspect, in line with standard procedures in Britain.

Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, moved to the king’s private estate in Norfolk after he was evicted from his longtime home near the castle earlier this month.

Police previously said they were “assessing” reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor and convicted sex offender, in 2010, when the former prince was Britain’s special envoy for international trade. Correspondence between the two men was released by the U.S. Justice Department late last month along with millions of pages of documents from the American investigation into Epstein.

“Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office,’’ Assistant Chief Constable Oliver Wright said in a statement.

“We understand the significant public interest in this case, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time,” he added.

Police also said they were searching two properties.

Earlier in the day, pictures circulated online that appeared to show unmarked police cars at Wood Farm, Mountbatten-Windsor’s home on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, with plainclothes officers gathering outside.

Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in his association with Epstein.

The allegations being investigated Thursday are separate from those made by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked to Britain to have sex with the prince in 2001, when she was just 17. Giuffre died by suicide last year.

Still, Giuffre’s family praised the arrest, saying that their “broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.”

The family added: “He was never a prince. For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.”

“This is the most spectacular fall from grace for a member of the royal family in modern times,” said Craig Prescott, a royal expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, who compared it in severity to the crisis sparked by Edward VIII’s abdication to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

“And it may not be over yet,’’ Prescott added.

Thursday’s arrest came a day after the National Police Chiefs’ Council said it had created a coordination group to assist forces across the UK that are assessing whether Epstein and his associates committed crimes in Britain. In addition to the concerns about Mountbatten-Windsor ’s correspondence, documents released by the U.S. suggest Epstein may have used his private jet to traffic women to and from Britain.

The documents also rocked British politics. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had to fight off questions about his judgment after the papers revealed that Peter Mandelson, the man he appointed ambassador to the U.S., had a longer and closer relationship with Epstein than was previously disclosed.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service has said it is investigating allegations of misconduct in public office related to Mandelson’s own correspondence with Epstein. Mandelson was fired as ambassador to the U.S. in September. (JapanToday)

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US Civil Rights Leader Jesse Jackson dies at 84

Veteran US civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson, one of the nation’s most influential Black voices, died peacefully Tuesday morning, his family said in a statement. He was 84.

Jackson, a Baptist minister, had been a civil rights leader since the 1960s, when he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and helped fundraise for the cause.

“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” Jackson’s family said.

“His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

The family did not release a cause of death, but Jackson revealed in 2017 that he had the degenerative neurological disease Parkinson’s.

He was hospitalized for observation in November in connection to another neurodegenerative condition, according to media reports.

A dynamic orator and a successful mediator in international disputes, the long-time Baptist minister expanded the space for African Americans on the national stage for more than six decades.

He was the most prominent Black person to run for the US presidency — with two unsuccessful attempts to capture the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980s — until Barack Obama took the office in 2009.

He was present for many consequential moments in the long battle for racial justice in the United States, including with King in Memphis in 1968 when the civil rights leader was slain.

He openly wept in the crowd as Obama celebrated his 2008 presidential election, and he stood with George Floyd’s family in 2021 after a court convicted an ex-police officer of the unarmed Black man’s murder.

Jackson was born Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, to an unwed teen mother and a former professional boxer.

He later adopted the last name of his stepfather, Charles Jackson.

“I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a shovel programmed for my hands,” he once said.

He excelled in his segregated high school and earned a football scholarship to the University of Illinois, but later transferred to the predominantly Black Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, where he received a degree in sociology.

In 1960, he participated in his first sit-in, in Greenville, and then joined the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights marches in 1965, where he caught King’s attention.

Jackson later emerged as a mediator and envoy on several notable international fronts.

He became a prominent advocate for ending apartheid in South Africa, and in the 1990s served as presidential special envoy for Africa for Bill Clinton.

Missions to free US prisoners took him to Syria, Iraq, and Serbia.

He founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization focused on social justice and political activism, in 1996

He is survived by his wife and six children. (Channels)

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Rubio’s speech to European allies takes a softer tone but sticks to Trump’s firm stance

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a reassuring message to America’s allies on Saturday, striking a less aggressive but still firm tone about the administration’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its priorities after more than a year of President Donald Trump’s often-hostile rhetoric toward traditional allies.

Reminding his audience at the annual Munich Security Conference about America’s centuries-long roots in Europe, Rubio said the United States would remain forever tied to the continent even as it pushes for changes in the relationship and the institutions that have been the bulwark of the post-World War II world order.

Rubio addressed the conference a year after Vice President JD Vance stunned the same audience with a harsh critique of European values. A series of Trump administration statements and moves targeting allies followed, including Trump’s short-lived threat last month to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to secure U.S. control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

On Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had opened this year’s gathering by calling for the U.S. and Europe to “repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together,” saying that even the U.S. isn’t powerful enough to go it alone in an world whose old order no longer exists. But he and other European officials made clear that they will stand by their values, including their approach to free speech, climate change and free trade.

While offering a calmer and more reassuring tone, Rubio made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on policy. He denounced “a climate cult” and “an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies.”

Rubio argued that the “euphoria” of the Western victory in the Cold War led to a “dangerous delusion that we had entered ‘the end of history,’ that every nation would now be a liberal democracy, that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood … and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world.”

“We made these mistakes together and now together we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild,” Rubio said.

“This is why we Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our counsel,” he said. “This is why President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe.”

Rubio said that an end of the trans-Atlantic era “is neither our goal nor our wish,” adding that “our home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”

He acknowledged that “we have bled and died side-by-side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar,” a contrast with disparaging remarks by Trump about NATO allies’ troops in Afghanistan that drew an outcry. “And I’m here today to make it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity. and that once again, we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends.”

U.S. officials accompanying Rubio said his message was much the same as Vance’s last year but was intended to have a softer landing on the audience, which they acknowledged had recoiled at much of Trump’s rhetoric over the past year.

The president of the European Union’s executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Rubio’s speech was “very reassuring” but noted that “in the administration, some have a harsher tone on these topics.”

In her speech to the conference, she stressed that “Europe must become more independent,” including on defense. She insisted on Europe’s “digital sovereignty” — its approach to hate speech on social media.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “we shouldn’t get in the warm bath of complacency. He said the U.K. must reforge closer ties with Europe to help the continent “stand on our own two feet” in its own defense, and said there needs to be investment that “moves us from overdependence to interdependence.”

Hanno Pevkur, the defense minister of EU and NATO member Estonia, said it was “quite a bold statement to say that America is ‘a child of Europe’.”

“It was a good speech, needed here today, but that doesn’t mean that we can rest on pillows now,” he told The Associated Press. “So still a lot of work has to be done.”

Rubio didn’t mention Greenland. After last month’s escalation over Trump’s designs on the Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.

The Secretary of State met briefly in Munich on Friday with the Danish and Greenlandic leaders, a meeting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described as constructive.

But Frederiksen suggested Saturday that although the dispute has cooled, she remains wary. Asked whether the crisis has passed, she replied: “No, unfortunately not. I think the desire from the U.S. president is exactly the same. He is very serious about this theme.”

Asked whether she can put a price on Greenland, she responded “of course not,” adding that “we have to respect sovereign states … and we have to respect people’s right for self-determination. And the Greenlandic people have been very clear, they don’t want to become Americans.” (JapanToday)

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Orbán says EU and not Russia is Hungary’s real threat ahead of April vote

The real threat facing Hungary is not Russia but the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a speech to supporters on Saturday, as his nationalist party ramps up an anti-EU campaign ahead of national elections.

With only eight weeks until the April 12 vote, Orbán and his Fidesz party are facing their most serious challenge since the right-wing populist leader retook power in 2010.

Most independent polls show Fidesz trailing the center-right Tisza party and its leader, Péter Magyar, even as Orbán has campaigned on the unsubstantiated premise that the EU would send Hungarians to their deaths in neighboring Ukraine if his party loses.

In his speech on Saturday, Orbán compared the EU to the repressive Soviet regime that dominated Hungary for over 40 years last century, and dismissed the belief of many European leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a threat to the continent’s security.

“We must get used to the idea that those who love freedom should not fear the East, but Brussels,” he said, referring to the EU’s de-facto capital in Belgium.

“Fear-mongering about Putin is primitive and unserious. Brussels, however, is a palpable reality and a source of imminent danger,” he said “This is the bitter truth, and we will not tolerate it.”

Orbán has been a firm opponent of military and financial aid for Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago, and has maintained close relations with Moscow while adopting a combative posture toward Hungary’s EU and NATO partners, which he portrays as warmongers.

In December, he said it was “unclear who attacked whom” when tens of thousands of Russian forces poured across Ukraine’s borders in February 2022.

Hungary’s government has long been at odds with the EU, which has frozen billions of euros in funding to Budapest over concerns that Orbán has dismantled democratic institutions, eroded judicial independence and overseen widespread official corruption. In return, Orbán has increasingly acted as a spoiler in EU decision making, routinely threatening to veto key policies like providing financial support for Ukraine.

As the elections approach, he has increasingly portrayed the Tisza party as a puppet created by the EU to overthrow his government and serve foreign interests, claims that Tisza has firmly denied. Magyar, the party’s leader, has pledged to repair Hungary’s strained relations with its Western allies, revive the stagnant economy and return the country to a more democratic track.

On Saturday, Orbán accused multinational corporations like banks and energy companies of profiting off the war in Ukraine, and conspiring with his political opposition to defeat him in the election.

“It is crystal clear that in Hungary the oil business, the banking world and the Brussels elite are preparing to form a government,” he said. “They need someone in Hungary who will never say no to Brussels’ demands.”

If his party wins a fifth-straight majority in the election, Orbán promised to push ahead with ridding Hungary of entities that he argues infringe on the country’s sovereignty.

He credited U.S. President Donald Trump, who has endorsed him ahead of the election, with creating an environment where “fake nongovernmental organizations and bought-and-paid-for journalists, judges and politicians” can be expelled.

“The new president of the United States has rebelled against the global business, media and political network of liberals, thus improving our chances,” he said. “We, too, can go a long way and expel foreign influence from Hungary, along with its agents, that limit our sovereignty.”

“The Brussels repressive machine is still operating in Hungary. We’ll clean it up after April,” he said. (JapanToday)

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Zelenskyy says U.S. too often asks Ukraine, not Russia, for concessions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced hope on Saturday that U.S.-brokered peace talks in Geneva next week would be substantive, but he said Ukraine was being asked “too often” to make concessions.

He also accused Moscow of seeking to delay decisions by changing ‌its lead negotiator.

Ukrainian, Russian and American delegations are due to meet in the Swiss lakeside city on Tuesday and Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to push through a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945.

“We truly hope that the trilateral meetings next week will be serious, substantive, helpful for all us but honestly sometimes it feels ‌like the sides are talking about completely different things,” Zelenskyy said in a speech at the annual Munich ⁠Security Conference.

Ukraine and Russia, which invaded its neighbor in February 2022, have engaged ⁠in two recent rounds of talks ⁠brokered by Washington in Abu Dhabi described by the sides as constructive but achieving no major breakthroughs.

Zelenskyy called for greater action from Ukraine’s allies ‌to press Russia into making peace – both in the form of tougher sanctions and more weapons supplies.

Recalling his appeal four years ago, when he spoke at ⁠the same conference days before tens of thousands of Russian forces poured into ⁠Ukraine, Zelenskyy said there was too much talk by Western officials and not enough action.

Trump has the power to force Putin to declare a ceasefire and needed to do so, Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian officials have said a ceasefire is required to hold a referendum on any peace deal, which would be organized alongside national elections.

The Ukrainian leader, a former television entertainer, acknowledged he was feeling “a little bit” ⁠of pressure from Trump, who yesterday said Zelenskyy should not miss the “opportunity” to make peace soon and urged him “to get moving”.

“The Americans often return ⁠to the topic of concessions and too often those concessions ‌are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia,” Zelenskyy said.

Instead, Zelenskyy said, he wanted to hear what compromises Moscow would be ready for, as Ukraine had already made many of its own.

Russia said its delegation to Geneva would be led by Putin’s adviser Vladimir Medinsky, a change from negotiations in Abu Dhabi at which Russia’s team was led by military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.

Zelenskyy told reporters on Saturday the change was “a surprise” for Ukraine, ‌and suggested to him that Russia wanted to delay any decisions from being agreed.

Ukrainian officials have criticized Medinsky’s handling of previous talks, accusing him of delivering history lessons to the Ukrainian team instead of engaging in constructive negotiations.

Land remains the major sticking point in negotiations, with Russia demanding that Ukraine cede the remaining 20% of the eastern region of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture – something Kyiv steadfastly refuses to do.

At a news conference on Saturday, Zelenskyy said that U.S. negotiators had told Ukraine that the Russians had promised a swift end to the war if Ukrainian forces immediately withdrew from the part of Donetsk it still controls.

He said earlier he was instead ready to discuss a U.S. proposal for a free trade zone ​in that region, while freezing the rest of the 1,200-km (745-mile) front line.

Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov, who sat beside Zelenskyy during the media briefing, said the only two options were either that Ukraine sticks to the current lines of control, or that a free economic zone ‌is established.

Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine’s national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Analysts say Moscow has gained about 1.5% of Ukrainian territory since early 2024. Its recent air strikes on Ukraine’s cities and electricity infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heating and power during the ‌course of a bitterly cold winter.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly expressed concern in recent weeks that U.S. congressional mid-term elections in November could focus the ⁠Trump administration on domestic political issues after the ⁠summer.

Zelenskyy said he hoped the U.S. would stay involved in the negotiations, ​and that there would be an opportunity for Europe, which he said was currently sidelined, to play a bigger role.

“Europe is practically ⁠not present at the table. It’s a big mistake ‌to my mind,” he said.

Zelenskyy said that Russia had to accept a ceasefire monitoring mission and an exchange ​of prisoners of war; he estimated that Russia currently had about 7,000 Ukrainian troops while Kyiv had more than 4,000 Russians.

Zelenskyy also suggested Moscow was opposed to the deployment of French and British troops in Ukraine after the war – which Paris and London have said they are willing to do – because Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to have the opportunity to come back.” (JapanToday)

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Trump’s EPA revokes scientific finding that underpinned U.S. fight against climate change

The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most aggressive move by the Republican president to roll back climate regulations.

The rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency rescinds a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.

The endangerment finding by the Obama administration is the legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.

President Donald Trump called the move “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the endangerment finding “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach.”

Trump called the endangerment finding “one of the greatest scams in history,” adding that it “had no basis in fact” or law. “On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world,” Trump said at a White House ceremony.

Legal challenges are certain for an action that repeals all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks, and could unleash a broader undoing of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, experts say. Overturning the finding will “raise more havoc” than other actions by the Trump administration to roll back dozens of environmental rules, said Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the UCLA School of Law.

Environmental groups described the move as the single biggest attack in U.S. history against federal authority to address climate change. Evidence backing up the endangerment finding has only grown stronger in the 17 years since it was approved, they said.

The EPA also said it will propose a two-year delay to a Biden-era rule restricting greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks. And the agency will end tax credits for automakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles. The device is intended to reduce emissions, but Zeldin said “everyone hates” it.

Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead EPA last year, has criticized his predecessors in Democratic administrations, saying that in the name of tackling climate change, they were “willing to bankrupt the country.”

The endangerment finding “led to trillions of dollars in regulations that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the American auto industry,” Zeldin said. “The Obama and Biden administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish list of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates and other requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability.”

The endangerment finding and the regulations based on it “didn’t just regulate emissions, it regulated and targeted the American dream. And now the endangerment finding is hereby eliminated,” Zeldin said.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 2007 case that planet-warming greenhouse gases, caused by the burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Since the high court’s decision, in a case known as Massachusetts v. EPA, courts have uniformly rejected legal challenges to the endangerment finding, including a 2023 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The endangerment finding is widely considered the legal foundation that underpins a series of regulations intended to protect against threats made increasingly severe by climate change. That includes deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the United States and around the world.

Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who served as White House climate adviser in the Biden administration, called the Trump administration’s actions reckless. “This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she said.

EPA has a clear scientific and legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gases, McCarthy said, adding that the health and environmental hazards of climate change have “become impossible to ignore.”

Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, said Trump’s action “prioritizes the profits of big oil and gas companies and polluters over clean air and water” and children’s health.

“As a result of this repeal, I’m going to see more sick kids come into the Emergency Department having asthma attacks and more babies born prematurely,” she said in a statement. “My colleagues will see more heart attacks and cancer in their patients.”

David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Trump and Zeldin are trying to use repeal of the finding as a “kill shot’’ that would allow the administration to make nearly all climate regulations invalid. The repeal could erase current limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories, power plants and other sources and could prevent future administrations from proposing rules to address global warming.

The EPA action follows an executive order from Trump that directed the agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming. (JapanToday)