HARARE: Grace Mugabe, the wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, is reported to have fled the country after the military placed them under house arrest.
Grace is said to be in Namibia now, but it is unclear how she was able to give the slip to the army while in detention in the southern African country’s capital, Harare.
South African President Jacob Zuma said he spoke with Mugabe, who was “fine” but is still confined to his home.
The military has denied it carried out a coup, but seized control to stop “criminals surrounding the president” from taking over.
After taking control of the national state broadcaster — Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) — Maj. Gen. Sibusiso Moyo addressed the nation early Wednesday and said the military is targeting “criminals” around Mugabe, and sought to reassure the country that order will be restored.
These criminals are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering and justified the action “in order to bring them to justice.”
“As soon as we have accomplished our mission, we expect that the situation will return to normalcy.” The army spokesman urged other security forces to “cooperate for the good of our country,” warning that “any provocation will be met with an appropriate response,” he said.
Armed soldiers in armored personnel carriers were stationed at key points in Harare and soldiers patrolled the capital’s streets as explosions were heard in the city.
Though the military did not make it clear if it would bring a formal end to Mugabe’s rule, the war veterans who have backed the army action said the military will return Zimbabwe to “genuine democracy” and make the country a “modern model nation.”
Chris Mutsvangwa, chairman of the war veterans’ association, told The Associated Press in Johannesburg that it was “a bloodless correction of gross abuse of power.”
Reacting on the developments, Britain has expressed cautious optimism but warned against any transition “from one unelected tyrant to the next”.
“The situation is still fluid, and we would urge restraint on all sides because we want to see and we would call for an avoidance of violence,” Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs.
France said it was closely following events in Zimbabwe and stressed respect for constitutional law after the southern African country’s military seized power early on Wednesday.
“We reiterate our attachment to constitutional law and respect of the legitimate aspirations of the Zimbabwean people,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Agnes Romatet-Espagne said during a daily media briefing.
Grace flees Zimbabwe after military ‘coup’
Grace flees Zimbabwe after military ‘coup’
India and Pakistan agree to a ceasefire in US-mediated talks
US President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social platform: “Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence”
ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan on Saturday agreed to a ceasefire following US-led talks to end the most serious military confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals in decades.
The ceasefire deal follows weeks of clashes, missile and drone strikes across their borders that were triggered by a gun massacre of tourists last month that India blames on Pakistan, which denies the charge. Dozens of civilians have been killed on both sides.
The first word of the truce came from US President Donald Trump, who posted on his Truth Social platform that he was pleased to announce that India and Pakistan had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire. “Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar announced the ceasefire on Geo News. He said Saudi Arabia and Turkiye played an important role in facilitating the deal.
His Indian counterpart, Vikram Misri, said the head of military operations from both countries spoke Saturday afternoon.
“It was agreed between them that both sides would stop all firing and military action on land, and in the air and sea. Instructions have been given on both sides to give effect to this understanding.” The top military officials would speak again on May 12, Misri added.
The deal has brought a swift conclusion to military escalation.
India said it targeted Pakistani air bases early Saturday after Islamabad fired several high-speed missiles at military and civilian infrastructure in the country’s Punjab state. Pakistan said it intercepted most missiles and responded with retaliatory strikes on India.
India says it gave a befitting reply to Pakistan strikes
Earlier Saturday, India’s military held a press briefing in New Delhi, saying Pakistan targeted health facilities and schools at its three air bases in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
“Befitting reply has been given to Pakistani actions,” said Indian Col. Sofiya Qureshi.
Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said India was committed to “non-escalation” provided that Pakistan reciprocated. However, Pakistani ground forces were observed mobilizing toward forward areas, she said, “indicating an offensive intent to further escalate the situation.”
“Indian armed forces remain in a high state of operational readiness,” she added.
Pakistan’s military said it used medium-range Fateh missiles to hit an Indian missile storage facility and air bases in the cities of Pathankot and Udhampur.
The Associated Press could not independently verify all the actions attributed to Pakistan or India.
Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif said Pakistan’s air force assets were safe following the Indian assault.
Indian strikes target Pakistani air bases
Tensions have soared since an attack at a popular tourist site in India-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, on April 22. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for backing the assault, an accusation Islamabad rejects.
Indian missiles Saturday targeted Nur Khan air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, Murid air base in Chakwal city and Rafiqui air base in the Jhang district of eastern Punjab province, according to Pakistan’s military spokesman.
There were no immediate reports of the strike or its aftermath from residents in the densely populated Rawalpindi.
Pakistanis celebrated the missile launches on India.
“Thank God we have finally responded to Indian aggression,” said Muhammad Ashraf, who had gone out in Lahore for breakfast. There were jubilant scenes in Peshawar and Karachi.
Explosions in India-controlled Kashmir
Following the announcement of Pakistani retaliation, residents in Indian-controlled Kashmir said they heard loud explosions at multiple places, including the two big cities of Srinagar and Jammu and the garrison town of Udhampur.
“Explosions that we are hearing today are different from the ones we heard the last two nights during drone attacks,” said Shesh Paul Vaid, the region’s former top police official and Jammu resident. “It looks like a war here.”
Vaid said explosions were heard from areas with military bases, adding it appeared that army sites were targeted. Residents living near Srinagar city’s airport, which is also an air base, said they were rattled by the explosions and booming sound of jets.
“I was already awake, but the explosions jolted my kids out of their sleep. They started crying,” said Srinagar resident Mohammed Yasin, adding he heard at least two explosions.
Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group for India, said the two countries were at war even if they had not yet labelled it as one.
“It’s become a remorseless race for military one-upmanship with no apparent strategic end goals from either side,” said Donthi. “Finding an exit or off-ramp is going to be challenging.”
India and Pakistan have traded strikes and heavy cross-border fire for days, resulting in civilian casualties on both sides.
Buildings were destroyed or damaged in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where powerful blasts ripped off roofs, windows and walls and left homes riddled with holes.
Villagers and rescuers in a district of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir sifted through the rubble of homes hit by overnight Indian shelling on Friday as people carried the dead. Others surveyed the ruins.
Pope Leo XIV lays out his vision of the papacy and identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity
- Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social question of the day posed by the industrial revolution in the encyclical
- “In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution”
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue in some of the core priorities of Pope Francis.
In his first formal audience, Leo repeatedly cited Francis and the Argentine pope’s own 2013 mission statement, making clear a commitment to making the Catholic Church more inclusive, attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the “least and rejected.”
Leo, the first American pope, told the cardinals who elected him that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church.
He identified AI as one of the main issues facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labor.
Leo referred to AI in explaining the choice of his name: His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. He did so most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age. The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.
In his remarks Saturday, Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social question of the day posed by the industrial revolution in the encyclical.
“In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” he said.
Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it.
He warned that such powerful technology risks turning human relations into mere algorithms. Francis brought his message to the Group of Seven industrialized nations when he addressed their summit last year, insisting AI must remain human-centric so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.
The late Argentine pope also used his 2024 annual peace message to call for an international treaty to ensure AI is developed and used ethically, arguing that a technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is too perilous to develop unchecked.
In the speech, delivered in Italian in the Vatican’s synod hall – not the Apostolic Palace – Leo made repeated references to Francis and the mourning over his death. He held up Francis’ mission statement at the 2013 start of his pontificate, “The Joy of the Gospel,” as something of his own marching orders, suggesting he intends very much to continue in Francis’ priorities.
He cited Francis’ insistence on the missionary nature of the church and the need to make its leadership more collegial. He cited the need to pay attention to what the faithful say “especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, especially popular piety.” Again, referring to Francis’ 2013 mission statement, Leo cited the need for the church to express “loving care for the least and rejected” and engage in courageous dialogue with the contemporary world.
Greeted by a standing ovation as he entered, Leo read from his prepared text, only looking up occasionally. Even when he first appeared to the world on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday night, Leo read from a prepared text that he must have drafted sometime before his historic election or the hour or so after.
European leaders in Kyiv for show of solidarity against Russia
KYIV: The leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Poland were in Ukraine on Saturday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, vowing to ratchet up pressure on Russia until it agreed a ceasefire in the three-year war.
The four countries, part of an alliance Britain and France have called “the coalition of the willing,” said in a joint statement they were “ready to support peace talks as soon as possible.”
The Kremlin has shown no signs of halting its invasion of Ukraine, despite US President Donald Trump pushing for a ceasefire, and warned earlier there could be no truce unless the West halted arms deliveries to Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a 30-day truce proposed by Washington and Kyiv in March, instead declaring two brief pauses in fighting that Ukraine has accused Moscow of violating.
On his way to Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron said that once a 30-day ceasefire was in place, there could be “direct talks between Ukraine and Russia.”
Both Moscow and Kyiv have hinted they are open to negotiating with each other but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says this would only be possible once a ceasefire takes effect.
Russia has occupied about a fifth of Ukrainian territory since February 2022 and intensified deadly attacks on the country this spring.
The US embassy in Kyiv said on Friday that a “significant air attack” could occur at some point within the next several days.
Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived together by train from neighboring Poland, where they joined Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
It is the first time the leaders of the four European nations have made a joint visit to Ukraine.
They were seen embracing Zelensky and joined him in placing lanterns at a memorial for fallen soldiers in central Kyiv.
For Merz, who took office only this week, it will be his first visit to Ukraine as chancellor.
Macron had not been to Kyiv since June 2022, when he went with the Italian and German leaders of the time.
“We are clear the bloodshed must end. Russia must stop its illegal invasion,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
They warned: “We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine. Until Russia agrees to an enduring ceasefire, we will ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine.”
They are later scheduled to host a virtual meeting to update other European leaders on moves to create a European force that could provide Ukraine with security after the war.
Such a force “would help regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces after any peace deal and strengthen confidence in any future peace,” the leaders’ statement said.
Russia has said it will not tolerate any Western military presence in Ukraine once the fighting ends and has warned the proposal could spark war between Moscow and NATO.
PUTIN VICTORY PARADE
The symbolic show of European unity comes a day after Putin struck a defiant tone at a Moscow parade marking 80 years since victory in World War II.
In an interview with the ABC news channel on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said arms deliveries from Ukraine’s allies would have to stop before Russia would agree to a ceasefire.
A truce would otherwise be an “advantage for Ukraine” at a time when “Russian troops are advancing... in quite a confident way” on the front, Peskov said, adding that Ukraine was “not ready for immediate negotiations.”
Europe and Ukraine argue more pressure is needed on Russia to respond.
After meeting Tusk in France on Friday, Macron called for the speedy drafting of a US-Europe plan for the 30-day truce that would be backed by “massive economic sanctions” if one side “betrays it.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said at a meeting on Ukraine in Norway on Friday that the “United States has two sanctions packages on the table” and that countries were discussing action in the “banking and the energy sector.”
A French presidential official, who asked not to be named, said the visit just four days after Merz took office “demonstrates Europe’s unity, strength, and responsiveness. And it mirrors Putin’s celebrations.”
China ‘strongly’ urges India, Pakistan to avoid escalation
BEIJING: China on Saturday urged India and Pakistan to avoid an escalation in fighting, Beijing’s foreign ministry said, as the conflict between its two nuclear-armed neighbors spiralled toward full-blown war.
“We strongly call on both India and Pakistan to give priority to peace and stability, remain calm and restrained, return to the track of political settlement through peaceful means and avoid taking actions that further escalate tensions,” a statement by a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Brazil’s Lula to visit China ahead of regional summit
- Beijing is Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Its exports to China reached more than $94 billion last year
BEIJING: Brazil’s president will begin a five-day trip to China on Saturday, Beijing announced, ahead of a gathering of Latin American leaders in the country next week.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s state visit comes at the invitation of counterpart President Xi Jinping and will last until Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
Since returning to power in early 2023, Lula has sought to improve ties with both China and the United States.
Beijing is Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Its exports to China reached more than $94 billion last year, according to the United Nations Comtrade Database.
The South American agricultural power sends mainly soybeans and other primary commodities to China, while the Asian giant sells semiconductors, telephones, vehicles and medicines to Brazil.
The two presidents are expected to attend next week’s summit between China and the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
China is seeking to replace the United States as the main political and economic external influence in Latin America, where leaders have urged a united front against President Donald Trump’s global tariff blitz.
Two-thirds of Latin American countries have joined Beijing’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure program, and China has surpassed the United States as the biggest trading partner of Brazil, Peru and Chile, among others.
