landslide

'The flood is coming': How a Nepal principal saved 900 students

US

US aircraft carrier departs Thailand after port call

  • The Lincoln departed from the port of Laem Chabang, a half-hour drive from Pattaya, at around 11:00 am (0400 GMT), AFP journalists saw. 
  • Thousands of US sailors aboard an aircraft carrier departed from Thailand on Sunday, AFP journalists said, concluding its first port call following reports of deteriorating living conditions on board after nine months at sea.
  • The Lincoln departed from the port of Laem Chabang, a half-hour drive from Pattaya, at around 11:00 am (0400 GMT), AFP journalists saw. 
Thousands of US sailors aboard an aircraft carrier departed from Thailand on Sunday, AFP journalists said, concluding its first port call following reports of deteriorating living conditions on board after nine months at sea.
The 5,000-strong crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln docked just north of the resort town of Pattaya, near Bangkok, on Wednesday for five days of rest and recreation after a lengthy Middle East deployment.
Amid Thailand's tourism low season, their arrival raised hopes for businesses in Pattaya, a city known for its beaches and nightlife -- as well as its seedy reputation as a hub for sex tourism.
The Lincoln departed from the port of Laem Chabang, a half-hour drive from Pattaya, at around 11:00 am (0400 GMT), AFP journalists saw. 
Security was stepped up in Pattaya during the visit, with authorities cracking down on sex workers ahead of the sailors' arrival -- although the mayor denied it was linked.

'Everything went fine'

Despite concerns about possible trouble, local police said Sunday that the port call ended largely without incident.
"Everything went fine," Pattaya police chief Anek Srathongyoo told AFP.
"There were no arrests or arguments except on the first day when Americans had an argument among themselves," he said.
The US Navy sent two sailors back to the Lincoln after a drunken altercation in the early hours of Thursday near Pattaya's nightlife hotspot Walking Street, the police chief said earlier.
He had described the "small scuffle" as "trivial" and said local residents only called police to prevent the dispute from escalating.
Last month, US Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation into conditions on the Lincoln following reports of food shortages, broken plumbing and mental health crises.
President Donald Trump dismissed the concerns, which have fuelled criticism of his dragging war on Iran, although the Lincoln was replaced in the Middle East by the USS George Washington.
The enlisted Americans were estimated to have spent up to 100 million baht ($3 million) during their visit, Pattaya Mayor Poramase Ngampiches said on Sunday.
In addition, the city benefitted from "selling other supplies such as tootpaste to the ship worth millions of baht (tens of thousands of dollars)", Poramase told AFP.
Media reports said sailors on the Lincoln had gone without basic toiletries, including toothpaste, deodorant and soap, at points during their deployment.
Many of the sailors and Marines spent their time on Thailand's coast shopping and visiting tourism sites, Poramase said.
"It shows that they are missing their families and want to buy some souvenirs for them," he said.
tp-sco/ane

anniversary

China's memories of Mao fade to nostalgia 50 years after his death

BY SAM DAVIES

  • "I still revere him very much," Xie Kaiyue, a 22-year-old local university student, said of Mao, who died almost three decades before she was born.
  • The crimson flags on Nanjie village's "East is Red" Square hang limp in the sweltering summer heat as a trickle of tourists take photos with a towering statue of Chairman Mao Zedong, still gleaming white almost 50 years after he died.
  • "I still revere him very much," Xie Kaiyue, a 22-year-old local university student, said of Mao, who died almost three decades before she was born.
The crimson flags on Nanjie village's "East is Red" Square hang limp in the sweltering summer heat as a trickle of tourists take photos with a towering statue of Chairman Mao Zedong, still gleaming white almost 50 years after he died.
The Great Helmsman, who died September 9 1976, is still very much a fixture in central Henan province's Nanjie -- often dubbed "China's last Maoist village".
Nostalgia for Mao's egalitarian ideals is growing in China as memories of his turbulent rule fade and the country grapples with a slowing economy and inequality.
Mao, who led the 1949 communist revolution against the ruling nationalists, ushered in an era of collectivised ownership he argued would drive industry and unite the country, but his drastic policies are also blamed by historians for mass starvation and millions of deaths.
While the ruling Chinese Communist Party maintains Mao was a revolutionary hero, it publicly acknowledged after his death that his devastating Cultural Revolution was a "grave mistake" -- a verdict upheld by subsequent leaders.
In Nanjie, countless murals of the former Chinese leader are plastered around the village.
Residents still live under Maoist principles of shared ownership, while the rest of the country moved on from that economic model.
"I still revere him very much," Xie Kaiyue, a 22-year-old local university student, said of Mao, who died almost three decades before she was born.
"I think young people in the village and, actually, myself, aren't as strong-spirited as in the past... People were purer," she said.
Nearby, electric carts whisked visitors past uniform apartment blocks plastered with socialist slogans as guides explained how cooperative ownership in local enterprises funds free housing for residents.

Party line

Around 500 kilometres (310 miles) north, in the mountain village of Dazhai in Shanxi province, once promoted by Mao as a national model after locals terraformed its arid hills into irrigated fields, tourists reminisce about an era when the Great Helmsman dominated political and social life.
"(People) didn't have enough to eat or to wear," Li, a 64-year-old tourist from Xi'an, said of his childhood.
"But... the whole country was full of vigour, and there was a spirit of struggling with heaven, earth, and people to change every aspect of China," the retiree said.
"Of course I miss it."
Now, Dazhai is overflowing with shops selling items that support Mao's personality cult -- posters, playing cards, and crockery emblazoned with his image, and the "Little Red Book" of his quotations.
Still, references to dark chapters of his decades in absolute power are tightly censored in public discourse.
The decade-long episode instigated by Mao in 1966 saw intellectuals brutally targeted as "class enemies" and schools shuttered, setting China back for years in education and development.
Private property and land were collectivised, while economic management pushed the country to the Great Famine, which the government says killed around 15 million people, while historians estimate around 20-43 million.
In one museum, text mentioning the Cultural Revolution had been crudely scraped off signage.
"Everything you see in the public domain... is the party line. No one is allowed to deviate from this," said scholar Xu Chenggang, who was targeted as a child in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution because his father was labelled a "rightist".
Mao's face is printed on banknotes, his portrait overlooks Tiananmen Square, and his body is preserved in a mausoleum.
Every year new movies and TV shows dramatising Mao's life beam the message of his great deeds to public. 
Public discussion has been squeezed further under current leader Xi Jinping, who warns against "historical nihilism", or narratives contradicting the party's own.
"The Communist Party told people there were mistakes, but what's the meaning of 'mistake'? No one knows," Xu said.

'Great figure'

The sanitised history has left space for romanticised interpretations among youths frustrated by long working hours and intense competition in education and the job market.
In December, a viral video series on Bilibili -- a platform popular with those under 30 -- argued that the 2017 movie 'Youth', which follows young performers in a military dance troupe during the 1970s, was a subtle ode to the Cultural Revolution.
The videos, which praised Mao and blamed capitalist elites for crushing the movement, were removed after gaining over 35 million views in less than a week.
"Today, there is more of a sense that the Cultural Revolution was a period of idealism, where society was fired by ideals and not by the relentless pursuit of money and material goods," said to Kerry Brown, head of the Lau China Institute in London and author of a recent book on Mao.
"This is, of course, a total fabrication," he said.
Many also credit Mao with laying the foundation for China to become a modern, technologically advanced nation, said Mobo Gao, professor of Chinese studies at Adelaide University.
"They ask, where did (today's China) come from? It came from the establishment of the PRC," said Gao, who lived through the Mao era in rural Jiangxi province.
"Who was the one who really established the PRC? It must be Mao."
In Shijiazhuang, an industrial city of seven million northeast of Dazhai, 20-year-old Wang Zhihao and his classmates posed with a giant Mao statue opposite the municipal government.
"We admire and revere Chairman Mao very much. He is a great figure," Wang said, as the sound of elderly residents singing songs praising the Communist Party drifted over from the nearby square.
"He led the founding of New China."
sam/reb/dhw/fox/ane

conflict

US envoys discuss with Putin 'substantive' plans for steps to end Ukraine war

  • Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin on Saturday to "advance President Trump's agenda of peace in the Russia-Ukraine War," a White House official said in a statement to AFP. "The two sides discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks, and look forward to equally productive meetings tomorrow in Ukraine."
  • American envoys discussed "substantive plans" for next steps to end the Ukraine war during their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House said, before they headed to Kyiv on Sunday.
  • Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin on Saturday to "advance President Trump's agenda of peace in the Russia-Ukraine War," a White House official said in a statement to AFP. "The two sides discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks, and look forward to equally productive meetings tomorrow in Ukraine."
American envoys discussed "substantive plans" for next steps to end the Ukraine war during their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House said, before they headed to Kyiv on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump's business partner Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner visited Moscow in hopes of reviving negotiations to end Europe's worst conflict since WWII.
The conflict began when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and has already killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. It escalated this summer with a drastic rise in civilian deaths on both sides.
Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin on Saturday to "advance President Trump's agenda of peace in the Russia-Ukraine War," a White House official said in a statement to AFP.
"The two sides discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks, and look forward to equally productive meetings tomorrow in Ukraine."
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the talks "extremely frank", saying the Americans "put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement", but did not elaborate. 
The Russian side told the Americans that Moscow was "confident" it could achieve its military goals of seizing the rest of eastern Ukraine, Ushakov added.
Both Russia and Ukraine have vowed not to strike each other's capitals for three days to allow for the negotiations to take place.
It was Kushner and Witkoff's eighth visit to Moscow during the war -- but it will be their first in the Ukrainian capital, hit by deadly Russian strikes throughout the war.
Russia's TASS news agency reported early Sunday that Witkoff and Kushner had arrived in Rzeszow in Poland on their way to Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was expecting the envoys on Sunday.
Ukrainian airspace has been closed since Moscow launched the war in February 2022 and visiting leaders have been arriving by train.

Putin thanks Trump

In televised comments before the talks, Putin said Russia would ensure the safety of the envoys in Kyiv -- a city Moscow has pounded with deadly strikes throughout the war.
"We will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves," Putin told Witkoff and Kushner. 
Earlier Saturday, Putin had thanked Trump for persisting in his efforts to end the war despite it being "not simple".
Of the envoys' trip to Kyiv, he said: "No matter what happens next, contacts of this kind are undoubtedly always beneficial."
Trump said on Friday his envoys were bringing a "proposal" to end fighting.
"We have an idea for peace," he said, without elaborating.
US efforts have so far not led to a breakthrough in the war, and peace efforts have stalled in part because of Washington's war with Iran.
Russia occupied large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, and Putin has insisted Moscow is intent on seizing the rest of eastern Ukraine. 

Limited truce

Both Moscow and Kyiv committed to suspending strikes as the negotiations took place.
"The Russian president, the commander-in-chief, has given the order from midnight not to strike Kyiv for three days," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Zelensky said he had spoken to the US envoys and also promised Kyiv would not strike Moscow.
"From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow," Zelensky said.
On Saturday, Putin said he had "noted that the Ukrainian side significantly reduced" its strikes on Russia and Moscow.
However, Kyiv said that Russian strikes had killed 10 people across the country Saturday -- including a child and his family members in the Kharkiv region and two people outside Kyiv.
Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to disrupt the visit of the US envoys with overnight attacks on Kyiv's two airports, as well as on civilian targets.  
bur/hol/tc

landslide

'The flood is coming': How a Nepal principal saved 900 students

BY LUCIE GODEAU

  • Now, standing above the scarred banks of the river in Nuwakot district more than a week after the disaster, Dawadi described himself simply as "a principal without a school".
  • Rajendra Dawadi was inside his school near Nepal's Trishuli River with around 900 students last week when a colleague delivered an urgent warning.
  • Now, standing above the scarred banks of the river in Nuwakot district more than a week after the disaster, Dawadi described himself simply as "a principal without a school".
Rajendra Dawadi was inside his school near Nepal's Trishuli River with around 900 students last week when a colleague delivered an urgent warning.
"My accountant came to the school and said, 'The flood is coming, the flood is coming'," the school principal told AFP in a recent interview.
Dawadi quickly ordered an evacuation, and teachers hurried hundreds of students from classrooms to higher ground. 
Minutes later, the 47-year-old watched the Trishuli Bazaar Secondary School he had run for years collapse into a raging torrent.
"If the information was wrong, we would lose a day of schooling," he recalled of the morning of August 26. "But if it was true, we were going to lose our lives."
Students were panicked, Dawadi said, and one girl fainted. 
Bus drivers bringing in other students were asked to turn back, including one driver who had just entered school grounds.
But the timely evacuation saved some 900 lives. 
Now, standing above the scarred banks of the river in Nuwakot district more than a week after the disaster, Dawadi described himself simply as "a principal without a school".
The tsunami-like wall of water, ice and debris unleashed by a massive glacial and rock collapse along the Nepal-China border killed at least 1,362 people and has left more than 5,500 missing across the two countries.
Five students died in the flooding outside the school, as well as a teacher and a security staff member, Dawadi said.
The staff member, who left the school after him, "had probably wanted to close the gate", he said.

'Nothing left'

Authorities in Trishuli Bazaar had not provided an evacuation plan, Dawadi said. 
Some residents tried to cross the bridge but were swept away. The others took refuge on higher ground.
"When I looked back, the school was standing there like the finest of buildings, and in five minutes, everything collapsed," Dawadi recalled. 
"It's also the school where I studied. There was nothing left."
Santoshi Dotel, 17, was in accounting class when the evacuation order came. At first, she struggled to comprehend the danger.
"We never would have thought the flood could reach such a scale," she said.
She initially went down to the river with her friend to try to cross and reach her family home.
Then the water surged.
"The bridge was swept away," she said. "I started to cry because I thought I would never get home and that there was nothing we could do."
Her friend pulled her up a hillside as the flood roared below.
Twisting her phone in her hands, Santoshi broke down into tears as she recalled the anguish of not knowing for hours whether her parents had survived.
It was only four days later that a helicopter finally reunited her with her family.
"I found my mother as I stepped out of the helicopter," she said. "She hugged me and started to cry. My mind just stopped working."
Her mother, Durga Dotel, had feared the worst.
"Seeing the river in flood, I had lost all hope that my daughter had survived," she said.
According to figures cited by Save the Children, at least 69 schools were destroyed or damaged, disrupting the education of nearly 19,000 children.
Dawadi said the disaster was "far worse" than the earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015. 
"The school had been completely destroyed (after the earthquake), but we rebuilt it," he said. 
"This time, we've lost the land and the building. We need a school again. But first, we need somewhere safe to build it."
bur-lgo/abh/lga/ane

US

US military strikes oil tankers as Iran vows tougher reprisals

BY AFP'S TEAMS IN WASHINGTON AND TEHRAN

  • US Central Command (CENTCOM) said early Saturday it targeted tankers linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), accusing the most powerful arm of the Iranian military of unsuccessfully firing at American warships.
  • The United States said it destroyed three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday in response to attempted missile attacks on naval vessels, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards saying they targeted US-linked ships in response.
  • US Central Command (CENTCOM) said early Saturday it targeted tankers linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), accusing the most powerful arm of the Iranian military of unsuccessfully firing at American warships.
The United States said it destroyed three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday in response to attempted missile attacks on naval vessels, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards saying they targeted US-linked ships in response.
The latest round of clashes, which began with US raids last week, comes amid a deadlock in the six-month war. Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz as Washington continues pressing its counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
In addition to the renewed military action, Washington is also seeking to choke Iran's economy, announcing sanctions on entities with financial links to the Islamic republic in a bid to force it into submission.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said early Saturday it targeted tankers linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), accusing the most powerful arm of the Iranian military of unsuccessfully firing at American warships.
"Following Iran's failed attacks, CENTCOM permanently disabled the IRGC crude oil carriers M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island and M/T Stark 1 near Jask," it said.
"American forces also completely destroyed the unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo... in the Gulf of Oman, striking the vessel in multiple critical locations to render it inoperable after the crew was directed to abandon ship."
Video posted by CENTCOM showed large fireballs and billowing flames after projectiles slammed into the ships.
The three vessels were "part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies," it said.
After the strikes, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said: "If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost -- taking out three of yours."
In a statement published by state news agency IRNA, the Guards said their air force "attacked an aircraft carrier and a destroyer with several ballistic missiles."
The Guards said those two American warships were "forced to retreat" after "suffering damage." CENTCOM said those ships successfully evaded Iranian attacks.

Lifeboats

Following the US strikes, the IRGC said their naval forces "targeted three oil tankers on the unauthorized route of the Strait of Hormuz and three vessels affiliated with the child-killing America in other areas."
It warned other ships not to attempt to transit by unapproved routes.
CENTCOM did not immediately respond to AFP's questions about the IRGC claims. There were no immediate reports from the UKMTO shipping agency of civilian tankers being targeted in the strait.
The Iranian foreign ministry earlier hit out at Washington over the strikes on the oil tankers, calling them "illegal and aggressive actions."
A correspondent for Iranian state TV in Jask in the southern province of Hormozgan said one of the tankers was empty and the second was carrying oil. The crews were transported to shore on lifeboats, they said.
Another state TV correspondent on Kharg Island said the attack there caused no casualties.
Iran's Khatam-al Anbiya central military command warned that if the US continued its attacks, then Tehran's retaliation against US warships would be "more severe than before, and there is a possibility of their expansion."

'Small potatoes'

The Trump administration has tried to downplay the significance of the six-month conflict, which has proven increasingly unpopular at home as midterm elections near.
US Vice President JD Vance went so far as to say that he "wouldn't call it a war."
US President Donald Trump backed his comments on Friday, calling the Iran war "small potatoes" for Washington.
Iran's Security Chief Mohsen Rezaei warned this week that the Islamic republic had adopted a "new strategy" against Washington in the war that "will shatter your foundations."
The US has been trying to step up pressure on Tehran over its blockade of the Hormuz Strait, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed.
A fragile ceasefire collapsed in July after attacks on commercial ships in the strategic waterway.
Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly threatened to claim sovereignty over the strait, even posting a map showing it as a "new US territory."
Vance has also insisted the US would not reopen talks with Iran until it ends attacks on commercial shipping in the Hormuz.
But with fuel prices threatening to cost Trump's Republicans their control of Congress at the ballot box, his administration has begun pushing the message that oil flows through the waterway are returning to prewar levels.
"Their control over the Strait of Hormuz is effectively gone," Vance said of Iran on Thursday.
Before the latest hostilities erupted, the United States had appeared to be pivoting to economic warfare rather than military operations.
On Friday, the US Treasury announced sanctions on a Turkish bank over its alleged ties to the IRGC, after last week taking a step towards cutting off a major Egyptian bank's UAE operations from the US financial system.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has laid out plans for the "economic asphyxiation" of Iran, warning of dire consequences for countries that do not join the American pressure campaign.
bur-pnb/hol/tc

Falklands

Argentina threatens to sanction oil projects around Falklands

  • "There are winds of change in the world that are favorable to our claim," Milei said.
  • Argentina has announced that it will investigate and sanction oil companies working near the Falkland Islands without authorization, after President Javier Milei said the "winds of change" favor his country's claim to the archipelago.
  • "There are winds of change in the world that are favorable to our claim," Milei said.
Argentina has announced that it will investigate and sanction oil companies working near the Falkland Islands without authorization, after President Javier Milei said the "winds of change" favor his country's claim to the archipelago.
Britain and Argentina fought a 10-week war in 1982 over the South Atlantic islands, a British overseas territory that Argentines call Las Malvinas.
Argentina's presidency said in a statement Friday that it had ordered the opening of proceedings to "investigate and penalize" 45 entities "linked to the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons" around the Falklands.
The statement did not name the entities involved. According to Argentine media, they include British, US, Canadian, Israeli, Danish and Dutch companies. 
On Saturday afternoon, oilfield services companies Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes issued statements saying they do not and will not work on hydrocarbon projects near the islands.
Later, Milei shared a news item on X reporting the statements, along with an acronym that translates to "everything is going according to plan."
The Falklands are located about 600 km east of Argentina's southernmost tip and administered by Britain. The Falklands war in 1982 ended with the surrender of the Argentine government after 74 days of conflict that killed 649 Argentines and 255 British troops.
In a speech Thursday, Milei renewed claims to the Falklands and announced tougher sanctions on companies linked to oil projects nearby.
"There are winds of change in the world that are favorable to our claim," Milei said.
Milei's speech followed comments from US President Donald Trump on Monday that the United States was reviewing its position on the Falkland Islands. 
According to media reports, Washington has threatened to oppose Britain's sovereignty over the South Atlantic archipelago if it does not increase its NATO defense spending.
British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting responded by asserting Britain's "unshakeable" commitment to the Falklands.
"The Falklands are British because Falkland Islanders choose to be British," he said in a social media post Friday.
tev-pbl/mjf/sla/ksb

conflict

US envoys put forward 'number of ideas' on Ukraine to Putin: Kremlin

  • Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the talks "extremely frank", saying the Americans "put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement", but did not elaborate. 
  • US envoys proposed a "number of ideas" on how to end the Ukraine war in "frank" talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin late Saturday, Moscow said, ahead of their first trip to Kyiv.
  • Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the talks "extremely frank", saying the Americans "put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement", but did not elaborate. 
US envoys proposed a "number of ideas" on how to end the Ukraine war in "frank" talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin late Saturday, Moscow said, ahead of their first trip to Kyiv.
US President Donald Trump's business partner Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner met Putin for more than three hours, the Kremlin said, as Washington tries to revive negotiations to end Europe's worst conflict since WWII.
Their visit to Moscow comes after the war -- which has killed hundreds of thousands and forced millions to flee their homes -- escalated this summer. It also follows a visit last month to Moscow by the director of the CIA director. 
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the talks "extremely frank", saying the Americans "put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement", but did not elaborate. 
The Russian side told the Americans that Moscow was "confident" it could achieve its military goals of seizing the rest of eastern Ukraine, Ushakov added.  
It was Kushner and Witkoff's eighth visit to Moscow during the war -- but it will be their first in the Ukrainian capital, hit by deadly Russian strikes throughout the war. 
Both Russia and Ukraine have vowed not to strike each others' capitals for three days to allow for the negotiations to take place. 

Envoys fly out

In televised comments before the talks, Putin said Russia would ensure the safety of the envoys in Kyiv -- a city Moscow has pounded with deadly strikes throughout the war.
"We will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves," Putin told Witkoff and Kushner. 
A day earlier, Kyiv said Russia had struck the headquarters of its SBU security services in the city's historic centre with a drone. 
Russia's TASS news agency reported the Americans had flown out of Moscow. 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was expecting the envoys on Sunday and it was unclear how they would get to Kyiv by then. 
Ukrainian airspace has been closed since Moscow launched the war in February 2022 and visiting leaders have been arriving by train. 

Putin thanks Trump

Earlier Saturday, Putin had thanked Trump for persisting in his efforts to end the war -- launched by Russia in 2022 -- despite it being "not simple".
Of the envoys' trip to Kyiv, he said: "No matter what happens next, contacts of this kind are undoubtedly always beneficial."
Trump said on Friday his envoys were bringing a "proposal" on ending fighting.
"We have an idea for peace," he said, without elaborating. 
Moscow occupied large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine. Putin has insisted Moscow is intent on seizing the rest of east Ukraine. 
Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Moscow after a summer of escalation that saw a drastic rise in civilian deaths on both sides.
Kyiv said Saturday that Russian strikes had killed 10 people across the country Saturday -- including a child and his family members in the Kharkiv region and two people outside Kyiv.  

Limited truce

Both Moscow and Kyiv have said they would halt strikes on each others cities to allow for negotiations.
"The Russian president, the commander-in-chief, has given the order from midnight not to strike Kyiv for three days," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky -- who had offered a truce during the US visits -- later said he had spoken to the US envoys and also promised Kyiv would not strike Moscow.
"From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow," Zelensky said.
On Saturday, Putin said he had "noted that the Ukrainian side significantly reduced" its strikes on Russia and Moscow.  
US efforts have so far not led to a breakthrough in the war -- which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.
As peace efforts stalled, in part because of Washington's war with Iran, Moscow and Kyiv stepped up their long-range attacks.

Russian strikes

As the US envoys were in the Kremlin, Ukraine said Russian attacks had killed three members of the same family in the city of Chuguiv in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. 
"As a result of this shelling, almost the entire family was killed: a 19-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy, and a 45-year-old man,"regional leader Oleg Synegubov said.
Earlier Saturday, Russia struck Kyiv's suburbs and in the Dnipro region, where local officials said five people had been killed.
Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to disrupt the visit of the US envoys with overnight attacks on Kyiv's two airports -- as well as on the civilian targets.  
bur/jj

royals

Prince William to represent King Charles III at Norway late King Harald's funeral

  • Charles, 77, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer but maintains a packed schedule of engagements, released a statement mourning the loss of his "dear cousin" King Harald last week.
  • Britain's Prince William will attend the funeral of Norway's late King Harald next week in place of his father King Charles III, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.
  • Charles, 77, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer but maintains a packed schedule of engagements, released a statement mourning the loss of his "dear cousin" King Harald last week.
Britain's Prince William will attend the funeral of Norway's late King Harald next week in place of his father King Charles III, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.
The heir to the throne is set to represent his father at the funeral on September 9, having also attended the funeral of Pope Francis last year on behalf of the king.
British monarchs do not attend funerals of other heads of state per protocol, usually sending another member of the royal family to represent them.
Charles, 77, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer but maintains a packed schedule of engagements, released a statement mourning the loss of his "dear cousin" King Harald last week.
The two men were second cousins once removed, both being descendants of Britain's King Edward VII.
Charles's sister Princess Anne will attend in a personal capacity as the godmother of the new king, Haakon VIII.
aks/yad

photography

AFP photographer wins top prize for Madagascar protest coverage

  • The exhibitions featured at the Visa pour L'Image event are on display in venues around Perpignan until September 13. cor-vgr/jj/acb
  • Agence France-Presse photographer Luis Tato on Saturday won the top prize at the prestigious Visa Pour l'Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France.
  • The exhibitions featured at the Visa pour L'Image event are on display in venues around Perpignan until September 13. cor-vgr/jj/acb
Agence France-Presse photographer Luis Tato on Saturday won the top prize at the prestigious Visa Pour l'Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France.
Spaniard Tato won the Visa d'Or prize for news photography for his coverage of Generation Z protests in Madagascar.
His work on the story had already been recognised at the World Press Photo Awards in April.
Accepting the award, 37-year-old Tato paid tribute to festival founder Jean-Francois Leroy, who died on Monday.
Leroy, he said, had given him an early break in 2018 when he showed his work for the first time.
Tato also acknowledged the young people of Madagascar, who "knew how important it was that their story be told".
In September 2025, student-led protests erupted across Madagascar over failing public services, corruption, and economic hardship. When President Andry Rajoelina dissolved his government but refused to resign, demonstrations intensified.
"I think this global movement of young people who are trying to redefine democracy and transform their societies is a very interesting dynamic, which fascinates me both as a photographer and as someone who seeks to understand the world we live in," said Tato.
Based in Kenya, Tato covers east Africa and the Indian Ocean region for AFP.
His work has already been recognised in several photography competitions, including three times at the World Press Photo awards; at the Pictures of the Year International, Sony World Photography Awards and NPPA Best of Photojournalism.
The exhibitions featured at the Visa pour L'Image event are on display in venues around Perpignan until September 13.
cor-vgr/jj/acb

genocide

Commemoration held for late Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic

  • On Saturday, around 300 people gathered at the commemoration ceremony for Mladic at a military facility in Belgrade, organised by an association of retired and active Serbian army generals, according to an AFP reporter.
  • A commemoration was held Saturday in Belgrade for war criminal Ratko Mladic two days ahead of his burial, attended by dozens of former military personnel, family members and officials.
  • On Saturday, around 300 people gathered at the commemoration ceremony for Mladic at a military facility in Belgrade, organised by an association of retired and active Serbian army generals, according to an AFP reporter.
A commemoration was held Saturday in Belgrade for war criminal Ratko Mladic two days ahead of his burial, attended by dozens of former military personnel, family members and officials.
Mladic died last week after suffering several strokes while serving a life sentence in The Hague for war crimes committed during the 1990s war in Bosnia.
His body was returned to Serbia on a government plane on Thursday, with his casket draped in flags and received with military honours.
The 84-year-old will be buried at a Belgrade cemetery on Monday, in a ceremony expected to draw thousands of mourners despite international condemnation.
On Saturday, around 300 people gathered at the commemoration ceremony for Mladic at a military facility in Belgrade, organised by an association of retired and active Serbian army generals, according to an AFP reporter.
His son Darko and other family members also attended, as well as Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic, and officials from the Bosnian Serb statelet, Republika Srpska, including President Sinisa Karan.
Dozens of other Mladic supporters crowded in front of the Serbian army house, in central Belgrade, but had to stay outside because the venue was full.
Some carried flags or wore T-shirts featuring Mladic in uniform with the caption, "Serbian Hero".
During the ceremony, speakers praised Mladic's role during the 1990s wars in Bosnia and Croatia, describing him as a "towering figure both as a man and a soldier".
Mladic's wartime atrocities during the collapse of the former Yugoslavia earned him the nickname "Butcher of Bosnia" in international media.
The Hague-based United Nations court convicted him of genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where around 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in a UN-protected safe zone.
Despite the verdicts, he is still hailed as a hero by some Serbs, particularly in Republika Srpska, where his death was marked with vigils and gatherings.
"Thank you (Ratko Mladic) for the existence of Republika Srpska," Zivomir Ninkovic, a retired Bosnian Serb general, told the ceremony.
"For if we didn't have Ratko Mladic, the way he was with all his characteristics, we would not have the Republika Srpska." 
Republika Srpska along with a Bosniak-Croat federation makes up Bosnia since its 1992-1995 war.
bur-ljv/jhb/jj

landslide

Two Nepal rescues revive hopes 10 days after flood

BY PAAVAN MATHEMA

  • Authorities later in the day said members of Nepal's Armed Police Force had pulled Chandrika Shrestha, 64, alive from her buried home in Nuwakot district.
  • Rescuers in Nepal pulled alive a Chinese national from a tunnel and a local woman from her partially submerged home on Saturday, as emergency teams searched with fresh urgency for thousands missing since catastrophic flooding 10 days ago.
  • Authorities later in the day said members of Nepal's Armed Police Force had pulled Chandrika Shrestha, 64, alive from her buried home in Nuwakot district.
Rescuers in Nepal pulled alive a Chinese national from a tunnel and a local woman from her partially submerged home on Saturday, as emergency teams searched with fresh urgency for thousands missing since catastrophic flooding 10 days ago.
A team comprising personnel from the Nepal Army and foreign experts rescued the Chinese man from 225 metres (738 feet) inside the tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Rasuwa district, a military statement said.
A picture on the army's Facebook page showed the man, identified only as Luhaitao, supported by two camouflage-clad rescuers.
He appeared alert, but his hands were covered in thick, wet mud.
"His health is currently being assessed and further search and rescue operations are continuing," the army said.
The man was among hundreds of hydropower workers who went missing after a tsunami-like wall of water and mud swept through the China-Nepal border following a vast glacial and rock collapse on August 26.
Authorities later in the day said members of Nepal's Armed Police Force had pulled Chandrika Shrestha, 64, alive from her buried home in Nuwakot district.
"A police team found her as they were clearing the area. She has been airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment," police deputy superintendent Iqbal Hawari told AFP.
A video released by the police force showed only part of her house visible, with the lower floors submerged by thick sludge.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah said Shrestha's rescue "has given hope to the entire nation".
 

'Hope and responsibility'

 
The energy ministry said rescuers were planning to use customised drones provided by Switzerland to assist in the tunnel search operations.
The drones are specifically designed to conduct search and inspection operations inside dark, narrow and hazardous tunnels.
"Our priority right now is... to continue the rescue efforts, keep all possible options open, and move forward with hope and responsibility," Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said on social media.
On Friday, two Nepali hydropower workers were rescued at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, where searches continued alongside multiple other sites, with at least 12 hydropower projects destroyed by the floods.
Both men were reported to be in stable condition in a Kathmandu hospital.
The government initially said it believed more than 100 workers could be alive inside multiple tunnels.
Experts from India, China, Australia and South Korea have been aiding Nepali rescuers in their search for survivors in the blocked tunnels.
So far 1,331 bodies have been recovered in Nepal, the national disaster agency said, revising an earlier figure of 1,344. Around 5,000 people remain missing in the country.
Chinese state media said 31 people had been killed and 531 were missing in Tibet.
That takes the overall death toll to 1,362 people, with more than 5,500 missing, including several hundred tourists and pilgrims.
In Kathmandu, mourners gathered on Saturday for a vigil honouring the victims of the disaster.
Dozens of people placed candles on the ground around the country's flag. Some appeared to offer prayers.
One framed sign propped against the base of a statue read: "Pray for Nepal."
 

Overflowing morgues

 
Rescuers have also been relying on drones to deliver medicine, food and other supplies, as well as transporting bodies, in high-altitude areas hard to reach by road.
"We have sent a lot of relief material and right now our team is loading some materials for the hospital in the area," drone operator Avaya Pokharel told AFP in Nuwakot.
The United Nations has warned that the "magnitude of the destruction" makes delivering aid an immense challenge, launching a $50-million appeal to help more than 84,000 people affected by the disaster.
With morgues overflowing, around 1,030 bodies have been buried in mass graves, after having DNA samples taken for future identification, Nepal Police said on Saturday.
Communities in the worst-affected districts remained cut off after the floods tore through mountains, destroying roads and bridges.
On Saturday, the Nepalese government released a provisional damage assessment, saying more than 7,500 houses, 48 public buildings and about 100 bridges had been destroyed.
In a sign of progress, a team was able to reach the remote Nepal-China international border crossing at Timure in Rasuwa district on Saturday. They placed Nepal's flag at the location, Shah, the prime minister, said.
"After three days of continuous efforts, Nepal's national flag has been reinstalled along the Nepali border," he said on Facebook.
"It was extremely difficult to identify the border from the Nepali side and erect the flag."
pm-abh/lga/jhb

conflict

US envoy on West Bank visit says Israel has responsibility for Palestinians

BY IMAD FREIJ

  • Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinian residents has persisted for years, often with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have seen a surge in attacks ahead of October 27 elections.
  • The US ambassador to Israel said Saturday that the Israeli government bore responsibility for West Bank Palestinians' safety and should impose "severe consequences" over violence, as he visited families after a surge in settler attacks.
  • Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinian residents has persisted for years, often with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have seen a surge in attacks ahead of October 27 elections.
The US ambassador to Israel said Saturday that the Israeli government bore responsibility for West Bank Palestinians' safety and should impose "severe consequences" over violence, as he visited families after a surge in settler attacks.
Mike Huckabee, long known as a staunch supporter of Israel and settlers, visited a Palestinian-American's home in the West Bank that has been repeatedly targeted by settlers and said he wanted to hear the community's "legitimate grievances".
As the ambassador met families inside a finely manicured old house in the town of Turmus Ayya, where around 80 percent of the 4,000 residents hold US citizenship, a settler from a nearby illegal outpost approached nearby in a quad bike.
"One of the messages that we have been sending and we will continue to send is that people in these communities have a right to live with a level of security and safety, and that the government has a responsibility to make sure that that happens," Huckabee said.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinian residents has persisted for years, often with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have seen a surge in attacks ahead of October 27 elections.
Huckabee stopped short of criticising Israel by name but said: "Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror. 
"When people do it they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences," Huckabee said.
He said that taking action was in the "best interest" of Israel, which already faces growing criticism around the world, including in key ally the United States, over the devastating offensive in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
"Their reputation does not do well when it appears that this tiny little group of marauders are somehow representative of the larger population. I don't believe that it is," Huckabee said.
"There may be a few hundred who are responsible, but that's a few hundred too many," Huckabee said.

'US has the ability'

Huckabee spent about two hours meeting Palestinian-Americans inside the home of Samir Hazmeh before joining the community in a lunch of maqluba, a dish of rice and meat served after flipping the pot upside down.
Hazmeh said the house in which he welcomed Huckabee had its windows smashed twice by settlers, who have also tried to open the gates and burn it down. He has put up both barbed wire and an American flag in hopes of protection.
Yasser Alqam, who met the ambassador, owns land just 100 metres (yards) away but said he cannot return after several attacks by settlers.
"The United States already has the ability to put pressure on Israel to at least arrest those settlers who are known to the authorities," he said, voicing shock that President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on settler extremists imposed by predecessor Joe Biden.
Alqam's wife Jinan, wearing a traditional Palestinian dress, said she voiced hope to Huckabee that he "can do something for us and provide us with protection from the settlers so that we can reach our land and pick the olives" in the coming season.

'Thou shalt not steal'

Ahead of elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has been ramping up approval of new settlements, which are illegal under international law. More than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank amid three million Palestinians.
Despite Huckabee's dismissal of violent settlers as a small minority, Netanyahu has brought into his government far-right ministers who have openly mused about expelling the Palestinian population.
Huckabee also denied that Israel was planning to force Palestinians out of Gaza, after Israeli ministers spoke of a plan to kick out the two million people.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former governor of Arkansas, has long cited his faith to back Israel and earlier would not even use the term Palestinian.
Speaking of violence by settlers, Huckabee said, "I think the Scripture is pretty clear -- Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not even covet."
Huckabee earlier intervened when settler extremists camped out and blocked basic supplies from reaching another Palestinian-American in the town of Qusra last month, leading to rare condemnation by Netanyahu of settlers.
if-sct/jfx

pollution

How haze from Indonesian fires impacts Southeast Asia

BY MARCHIO GORBIANO

  • -  Most of the fires are concentrated on Borneo island, home to vast tropical jungle that Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia, as well as Sumatra.
  • Thick smog has blanketed parts of Indonesia as the vast archipelago for weeks battles to contain fires that have burned large swathes of Borneo and Sumatra.
  • -  Most of the fires are concentrated on Borneo island, home to vast tropical jungle that Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia, as well as Sumatra.
Thick smog has blanketed parts of Indonesia as the vast archipelago for weeks battles to contain fires that have burned large swathes of Borneo and Sumatra.
The hazardous smoke has led to an increase in respiratory problems, forced schools to close and has been drifting to neighbouring countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Here's what to know:
- Where are the fires? - 
Most of the fires are concentrated on Borneo island, home to vast tropical jungle that Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia, as well as Sumatra.
So far this year, nearly 300,000 hectares of land have burned in Indonesia, according to an independent estimate from the Nusantara Atlas portal. 
Indonesia saw an uptick in carbon emissions since late July, and by the end of last month the levels were comparable to previous El Nino years of 2015 and 2019, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) senior scientist Mark Parrington told AFP.
"We're seeing already now... really extreme fire emissions comparable to those previous strong El Nino years, and also the extent of the smoke and the haze and the air quality impacts," Parrington said.
Fires in the archipelago have released more than 23 million metric tons of carbon emissions between August 28 and September 3, according to the CAMS Fire Emissions Watch portal.
It was higher than 20.7 million metric tons of emissions from fires over the same period in 2015, which was a strong El Nino year.
- What causes the fires? - 
Analysts said that the El Nino weather phenomenon, which the United Nations said this week could turn out to be the strongest in four decades, has contributed to creating drier conditions in Indonesia and made it easier for fires to spread.
But slash-and-burn land-clearing practices also contributed to the damage, said David Gaveau, founder of the Nusantara Atlas.
"El Nino does not ignite fires. It creates the dry conditions that allow human-started fires to escape and become very large," he told AFP.
The fires are difficult to extinguish because many occurred on peatlands, a wetland ecosystem with layers of partially decomposed organic materials that become flammable when dry.
Between January and August this year, more than 210,000 hotspots were detected in peatland areas across the country, according to NGO Pantau Gambut.
"Peat is a naturally wet ecosystem and stores large amounts of organic material. When peat is drained, this organic material is converted into fuel," Pantau Gambut spokesman Wahyu Perdana said.
- What is the impact? - 
More than five million people across Borneo and Sumatra are directly exposed to the health risks from haze, deputy health minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said last month.
Over 1.4 million students were attending classes remotely, with many schools closed due to worsening air quality, an education ministry official said this week.
In Malaysia, soaring pollution levels prompted the government on Friday to declare an emergency in a region of the Sarawak state in Borneo, with nearly 650 schools closed next week.
In the Philippines, air quality was slowly returning to normal after a week of reaching "very unhealthy" and "severely unhealthy" PM 2.5 levels that saw officials shutter schools in cities and provinces, citing the drifting haze.
The haze also drove air quality in Singapore's central region to an "unhealthy" level on Friday, the country's National Environment Agency data showed. 
Indonesia is in communication with other countries in the region in relation to the transboundary haze, foreign ministry spokesman Vahd Nabyl Achmad Mulachela said in a statement on Saturday.
He said that regular meetings between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members to discuss the haze and follow-up measures "continue to be held".
burs-mrc/lga

pollution

Indonesia rescues second orangutan mother and baby from wildfire

  • But authorities decided to evacuate them to a rescue center managed by the wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) on Thursday as fire spread near their habitat. 
  • An orangutan mother and her baby, threatened by encroaching wildfires to their habitat in Indonesia, were rescued earlier this week, authorities said in a statement Saturday. 
  • But authorities decided to evacuate them to a rescue center managed by the wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) on Thursday as fire spread near their habitat. 
An orangutan mother and her baby, threatened by encroaching wildfires to their habitat in Indonesia, were rescued earlier this week, authorities said in a statement Saturday. 
The vast Southeast Asian archipelago has for weeks been fighting wildfires blanketing parts of Borneo and Sumatra with smog, with haze also contributing to air pollution in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. 
The orangutan pair had been under observation since July after being spotted in a plantation area near a forest in West Kalimantan, a local natural resources conservation agency said in a statement. 
But authorities decided to evacuate them to a rescue center managed by the wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) on Thursday as fire spread near their habitat. 
Their health is being closely monitored by veterinarians, but a preliminary check found no burn injuries on the two great apes. 
"Exposure to smoke over a period of time... can affect the orangutan's respiratory system, especially when smoke concentrations in the habitat are very high," YIARI's veterinarian Komara, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said in a statement. 
"Both individuals will continue to be monitored while they are at the rescue and rehabilitation center."
The latest rescue means nine orangutans have been evacuated because of threats from wildfires in less than a month in the Ketapang district of West Kalimantan province, YIARI operational director Argitoe Ranting said.
"This shows that fires not only destroy forests but also deprive animals of shelter and food," Argitoe said. 
Most animals "do not have many options" to relocate as their habitat burns, he added. 
One orangutan died after being rescued last week, with a necropsy result pointing to smoke exposure as the cause of death, the West Kalimantan natural resources conservation agency said in a statement.
mrc/fox

explosion

Bolivian army base blasts kill two, wound dozens

  • The wounded, including two people in "serious condition," were taken to medical centers, he added. 
  • Two explosions at an army barracks in Bolivia killed at least two people and wounded 81 on Friday, authorities said.
  • The wounded, including two people in "serious condition," were taken to medical centers, he added. 
Two explosions at an army barracks in Bolivia killed at least two people and wounded 81 on Friday, authorities said.
Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano said "pyrotechnic material" was stored at the base in Viacha, southwest of Bolivia's administrative capital La Paz.
The exact cause of the blasts, which happened at around 2:30 pm (1830 GMT), was under investigation, he said in a statement.
Footage circulated by local media showed a thick column of black smoke rising from the city center.
Houses in the area were damaged by the blasts, with footage showing shattered windows, broken ceilings and scattered debris. 
Justiniano said two people were confirmed dead and seven people were missing. 
The wounded, including two people in "serious condition," were taken to medical centers, he added. 
The dead and missing were soldiers serving at the base, the defense ministry said.
An earlier police report said 59 people were wounded, at least 52 of them civilians.
Firefighters rushed to the base following the blasts, and residents were evacuated to a temporary shelter. 
The power supply was cut off in the area, where dozens of police officers had been deployed, an AFP journalist observed.

'Deep solidarity'

President Rodrigo Paz expressed his "deep solidarity with the families of the deceased, the injured and all residents affected by the explosions."
He said he had ordered a "thorough, technical and transparent" investigation. 
"We must establish with absolute clarity the causes of this event, verify compliance with safety protocols and determine any responsibilities that may arise," he said in a post on X.
Viacha's authorities have declared three days of mourning.
Justiniano said that there were two successive blasts. 
The first detonation was believed to have involved "black powder corresponding to pyrotechnic material stored at the site," he said. 
It was followed by a "second detonation of much greater magnitude," he said, adding that the cause and the material that exploded were still being determined.
The defense ministry said no military weapons had been detonated. 
"At this time, our priority is people: caring for the injured, supporting their families, and continuing search and verification efforts," Justiniano said.
sf-gta/cb/md/dw/cms/lkd/tc

conflict

Trump sends envoys to Moscow, Kyiv with new plan to 'end war'

  • "I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators.
  • US President Donald Trump said Friday he is sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv with a plan to end more than four years of war in Ukraine.
  • "I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators.
US President Donald Trump said Friday he is sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv with a plan to end more than four years of war in Ukraine.
The move marks Washington's latest bid to break a diplomatic stalemate in Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP the envoys were due in Kyiv on Sunday. 
US outlet Axios reported they would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, and then President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday. The Kremlin declined to comment.
Trump told reporters that the two negotiators would seek to gauge whether progress towards peace was possible.
Peace efforts have stalled due to Washington's war with Iran, while Moscow and Kyiv have intensified long-range attacks, driving up civilian casualties to levels not seen since the start of fighting.
"I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators. They've done a great job, and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we'll do it," Trump said.
"They're bringing with them a proposal to end the war," he said. 
The US president would not say whether the plan involved Ukraine ceding territory as he has previously suggested, but added: "We have an idea for peace."
It will be the first time that Trump's businessman friend Witkoff and son-in-law Kushner have visited war-torn Kyiv since Trump returned to office last year with a pledge to resolve the conflict.
Witkoff and Kushner, who have been involved in negotiations for ceasefires in Gaza and Iran, have travelled repeatedly to Moscow in previous attempts at diplomacy.

Grinding war

The renewed push for diplomacy comes as Russia and Ukraine pummel each other with long-range missile and drone attacks.
Just hours before Trump's announcement, a Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine's SBU security service in central Kyiv, according to Zelensky.
The strike, which Zelensky said was aimed at the office of the agency's acting chief, was the first on its headquarters since the start of the invasion.
Despite the unprecedented nature of the strike, the Ukrainian president proposed observing a ceasefire with Russia for the duration of the US envoys' trip.
"There will be no airstrikes on our part, and Russia must reciprocally ensure a ceasefire -- without its own airstrikes -- for the duration needed to conduct these talks," he said in his evening address.
Russia did not immediately comment on the proposal.
Hours later, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said a Russian strike killed four people and wounded five in the southeastern city of Kamianske.
Zelensky had said on Wednesday that Russian airspace would be "completely unsafe" and filled with Ukrainian drones as long as Moscow continued its war. 
Witkoff and Kusher's trip comes more than week after a rare visit to Moscow by CIA director John Ratcliffe, who warned Russia against any attack on NATO member states, according to US media. 
Earlier this week, the United States welcomed the Russian finance minister at a G20 gathering in North Carolina.
bur-abs/cms

diplomacy

Africa bigger, US smaller - UN adopts new map

  • It inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America.
  • The United Nations General Assembly voted Friday to adopt a new world map that makes the African continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe, drawing ire from Washington.
  • It inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America.
The United Nations General Assembly voted Friday to adopt a new world map that makes the African continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe, drawing ire from Washington.
Aimed at "a more accurate representation" of continental landmasses, the resolution was supported by 164 countries while the United States voted against it and six other states abstained.
The new map -- known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection -- improves "the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world," the resolution said.
It urges member states to use the new map in place of the traditional Mercator projection, which was designed for maritime navigation by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.
Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, which sponsored the resolution, said maps "guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions."
"They are therefore never neutral; when they present a distorted image of our planet, they risk perpetuating inaccurate representation that is passed down through generations."
The United States however slammed the resolution, saying such moves are "the reason this institution is losing its credibility."
"Instead of focusing on genuine problems... this body is debating map projects from the 16th century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice," US representative Yaryna Ferencevych said ahead of the vote.

'Distorted representation'

The Mercator projection focused on accurate depictions of the shapes and angles of land masses, but their relative sizes were often inaccurate -- largely due to the challenge of rendering a three-dimensional globe onto a two-dimensional map.
It inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America.
A group of cartographers launched the Equal Earth projection in 2018. It makes Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania appear much larger.
"Equal Earth preserves the relative surface areas of continents and, as much as possible, shows their shapes as they appear on a globe," one of the cartographers, Bojan Savric, told AFP in 2025.
France -- which co-sponsored the resolution in support of the new map -- announced Friday that it would abandon the Mercator projection.
In that map, "the United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or southeast Asia," while "Greenland appears almost as big as Africa," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.
"Changing maps obviously doesn't change the world," he said. "But correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth."
The initiative comes as France is seeking to improve relations with Africa, particularly in former colonies with which it has prickly ties.
rh/wd/bgs/sst

massacre

Srebrenica: Massacre that outraged the world

  • Driven out under a policy dubbed "ethnic cleansing", Bosnian Muslim forces retake the enclave.
  • Srebrenica became a symbol of ethnic cleansing after its men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serbs following a three-year-long siege during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
  • Driven out under a policy dubbed "ethnic cleansing", Bosnian Muslim forces retake the enclave.
Srebrenica became a symbol of ethnic cleansing after its men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serbs following a three-year-long siege during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
The funeral of the convicted war criminal who oversaw the massacre, the Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, takes place on Monday after his death in prison on August 27.
Srebrenica would be ruled a genocide by an international court.
Here is a timeline of the tragedy:  

1992: First capture

Srebrenica, a mainly Muslim town in eastern Bosnia, falls to Bosnian Serb troops shortly after the start of the siege of the capital Sarajevo at the beginning of the Bosnian war in April 1992.
Other towns in the eastern Drina valley are also captured with the help of paramilitary groups who have crossed from neighbouring Serbia.
Driven out under a policy dubbed "ethnic cleansing", Bosnian Muslim forces retake the enclave. But at the end of the year it is again targeted by the Serbs, who cut off road access.

1993: 'Safe area'

Between March and April 1993 some 8,000 people are evacuated from the increasingly embattled enclave.
Dozens are killed in bombardments by Bosnian Serb forces.
On April 16, as the town comes under fire from tanks and artillery, the UN Security Council declares Srebrenica a "safe area" under the protection of UN and NATO forces.
A ceasefire and demilitarisation accord is signed the next day in Sarajevo under UN auspices, but it is never respected.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) channels foodstuffs and other necessities into the town, which is now a protected zone.
In May the UN creates five other safe areas -- Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zepa, Gorazde and Bihac.

1994: Dutch troops arrive

On March 1, 1994, a contingent of 450 UN peacekeepers is deployed to the enclave where the rotation of UN soldiers had previously been held up. These Dutch troops take over from Canadian peacekeepers.

1995: Final offensive

In early July 1995 the Bosnian Serb forces attack Muslim government positions to the south, east and north of the enclave. They overrun the peacekeepers' positions on July 9 after taking some 30 hostage.
Bosnian Serb tanks are by then less than two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the town.
On July 11 NATO carries out airstrikes on two Serbian tanks on the outskirts of Srebrenica.
However, that same day the Bosnian Serb army led by Mladic overruns Srebrenica, causing tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the Dutch force's compound at Potocari on the hilly town's outskirts.
The peacekeepers and thousands of refugees, mostly women and children, retreat into the UN base, while thousands of others gather outside.
- July 1995: Massacre - 
With Srebrenica taken, Mladic orders the evacuation of all civilians, including women, children and the elderly, while all men of fighting age are taken prisoner.
In the following days more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys are systematically butchered by the Bosnian Serb forces and their bodies dumped in mass graves.
The Serbs later dig many back up and rebury them in other graves in order to try to hide the evidence.
Witness accounts emerge from July 17, with those who escaped telling harrowing tales of murder, torture and rape by the Bosnian Serb forces.
On July 24 and November 16 respectively, Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and Mladic are indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
To date, 6,880 victims of the massacre have been identified and buried -- 6,643 in Potocari's memorial centre and 237 in other Srebrenica area cemeteries.

November 1995: Bosnia divided

On November 21, 1995, the Dayton Accords, hammered out under international pressure, bring an end to the war.
They divide Bosnia into two entities, the Serb Republika Srpska and the Muslim Croat Federation of Bosnia, each enjoying a large degree of autonomy and united by weak central institutions.
bur-kd/jmy/eab/fg/bp/al/sbk

conflict

Trump says envoys taking plan to 'end the war' to Moscow, Kyiv

BY DANNY KEMP

  • "I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators.
  • US President Donald Trump said Friday that he was sending envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to Moscow and Kyiv with a plan to end the four-year-old Ukraine war.
  • "I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators.
US President Donald Trump said Friday that he was sending envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to Moscow and Kyiv with a plan to end the four-year-old Ukraine war.
It will be the first time that Trump's son-in-law Kushner and businessman friend Witkoff have visited war-torn Kyiv since Trump returned to office last year with a vow to solve the conflict.
Both US envoys have previously visited Moscow, leading to accusations that they have taken Russia's side in negotiations.
"They're bringing with them a proposal to end the war," Trump told reporters when asked about the trip.
Trump would not say whether the plan involved Ukraine ceding territory as he has previously suggested but added: "We have an idea for peace."
"I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators. They've done a great job, and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we'll do it," he said.
The US leader blamed the war that began with Russia invading Ukraine in February 2022 on a "personality problem" between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky earlier said he had proposed observing a ceasefire with Russia while the US envoys visit Moscow and Kyiv.
"There will be no airstrikes on our part, and Russia must reciprocally ensure a ceasefire -- without its own airstrikes -- for the duration needed to conduct these talks," Zelensky said in his evening address.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP the two envoys would visit Kyiv on Sunday. The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter.
A report in the US news outlet Axios said Kushner and Witkoff would travel on Friday, meet Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday, and then Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday.
The two men have also been involved in negotiations for ceasefires in Gaza and Iran.
Trump meanwhile played down Germany's move earlier this week to blame Russia for an attempted drone attack on an airport.
"I speak to him. I know him very well. Putin's not looking to attack NATO territory," Trump said in the Oval Office when an AFP reporter asked him about the German allegation.
Trump has long been skeptical about maintaining support for Ukraine and had a televised row with Zelensky in the Oval Office in February 2025. With Putin, he has veered between friendliness and frustration.
The US leader said on Thursday that he would ask Europeans to repay the American aid provided to Ukraine under the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden.
Trump has long demanded that Europeans shoulder more of the cost of Western support for Ukraine.
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health

Mistrial declared in case of US woman who killed her three children

BY JOSEPH PREZIOSO WITH CHRIS LEFKOW IN WASHINGTON

  • "At this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial," Judge William Sullivan said.
  • A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the high-profile case of an American woman who killed her three young children.
  • "At this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial," Judge William Sullivan said.
A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the high-profile case of an American woman who killed her three young children.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, acknowledged strangling Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, but claimed she should be excused from criminal responsibility because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.
After seven days of deliberations the jury of nine women and three men was unable to reach a unanimous decision, as required in criminal proceedings in the United States.
Eleven jurors were in favor of finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity, but they were opposed by a single holdout.
"At this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial," Judge William Sullivan said.
Prosecutors must now decide whether to try the case again before a new jury.
"I'll be making that decision shortly," Tim Cruz, the Plymouth County, Massachusetts district attorney, told reporters.
Kevin Reddington, Clancy's lawyer, said his client and the other members of the jury were let down by the man who declined to vote for an acquittal.
"They were robbed by one man for whatever his agenda was," Reddington told reporters. "I hope that guy can sleep well at night."    
Clancy will remain at a psychiatric institution pending a possible new trial.
Her televised trial, which featured more than 80 witnesses and days of distressing testimony, has sparked debate in the United States over maternal mental health and drew a reaction on Friday from President Donald Trump.
"It's a horrible tragedy," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I assume there's going to be another trial."
Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children.
Her lawyers said this was caused by postpartum psychosis, a condition that medical experts say affects about one to two women in every 1,000 births.
Prosecutors rejected that argument, saying Clancy had carefully planned the murders of her children and was able to understand the consequences of her actions.
Psychiatrists and people close to Clancy, as well as her ex-husband, were among the witnesses who testified about her fragile mental health.

'Lousy medical care'

Dozens of women dressed in pink showed up at the court in Plymouth to extend their support for Clancy -- and to make a statement about women's health more generally.
During closing arguments, Reddington, Clancy's lawyer, said she had made numerous pleas for help before the killings but had received "lousy medical care" from the doctors she consulted.
After the murders at the family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023, Clancy cut her neck and wrists and jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that has left her paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.
The former nurse faced life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of first-degree murder. 
Jurors were also given the option of finding Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see her confined to a psychiatric facility.
The trial has revived memories of a similar case that also captivated the country 25 years ago, that of Andrea Yates, a Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001.
Yates was initially convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but she was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a 2006 retrial and committed to a psychiatric hospital.
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