WARSAW, Poland: The mayor of a city in Poland was in very serious condition after he was stabbed on stage Sunday during the finale of a large charity event, and Polish media reported details that gave the attack a political element.
Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz was attacked with a knife while he stood on stage, held his belly and collapsed during the “Lights to Heaven” fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, Poland’s most important charity.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said he was informed that “doctors succeeded in reanimating the heart of the seriously injured Mayor Pawel Adamowicz and there is hope, but his condition is very difficult.” He called on for people to pray for the mayor.
Polish broadcaster TVN reported that the suspected assailant shouted from the stage that he was imprisoned under a previous national government led by Civic Platform, a party to which the mayor formerly belonged, despite being innocent. He was arrested.
Several Polish media outlets, including Rzeczpospolita, reported that the man yelled after stabbing Adamowicz: “Hello! Hello! My name is Stefan, I was jailed but innocent. ... Civic Platform tortured me, that’s why Adamowicz just died.”
Police said he was a 27-year-old with a criminal record and had carried out bank robberies.
Radio Gdansk reported that Adamowicz was stabbed in the area of his heart, but did not cite its source, while Rzeczpospolita described his condition as “critical,” citing unnamed sources. A spokesman for the hospital called his condition “very serious.”
TVN footage showed Adamowicz on stage just before the attack with a sparkler in hand telling the audience that it had been a “wonderful day” and then the attacker coming toward him.
European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who co-founded Civil Platform and is from Gdansk, wrote on Twitter: “Let’s all pray for Mayor Adamowicz. Pawel, we are with you.”
The head of the charity, Jerzy Owsiak, is a liberal critic of Poland’s current right-wing government. He blamed what he described as an atmosphere of hate under the ruling Law and Justice party for the attack on the mayor.
Owsiak referred to being personally depicted in a defamatory manner in an animation that ran on state TV last week and that also had anti-Semitic overtones.
The animation showed Owsiak as a clay figure being manipulated by a leading Civic Platform official who seized piles of cash that he collected, apparently suggesting the charity was a ruse to raise money for the opposition party. A Star of David was on one of the banknotes. The broadcaster apologized after the animation triggered an outcry.
Adamowicz, 53, has been mayor of Gdansk, a Baltic port city, since 1998. He was part of the democratic opposition born in that city under the leadership of Lech Walesa during the 1980s. After leaving Civic Platform, he was re-elected to a sixth term as an independent candidate in the fall.
As mayor, he has been a progressive voice, supporting LGBT rights and tolerance for minorities. He marched in last year’s gay pride parade, a rare action for a mayor in Poland.
He also showed solidarity with the Jewish community when the city’s synagogue had its windows broken last year, strongly denouncing the vandalism.
“Horrified by the brutal attack on Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz,” said Frans Timmermans, a Dutch politician and leading European Union official. “Hope and pray he will recover. A great leader of his city and a true humanitarian.”
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity raises money for state-of-the-art medical equipment Poland’s cash-strapped health care system, mostly for children but also for the elderly.
Poland: Mayor stabbed on stage, condition very serious
Poland: Mayor stabbed on stage, condition very serious
- TVN footage showed Adamowicz on stage just before the attack with a sparkler in hand telling the audience that it had been a “wonderful day” and then the attacker coming toward him
Russia declares a ceasefire in Ukraine on May 8-10 for WWII Victory Day
- The Kremlin said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the full cessation of hostilities on “humanitarian grounds” for the Victory Day on May 9
- Putin had refused to accept a complete unconditional ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Ukraine’s mobilization effort
KYIV: The Kremlin on Monday declared a full ceasefire in Ukraine on May 8-10 as Russia celebrates the Victory Day over Nazi Germany.
The truce will start at 0000 on May 8 (2100 GMT May 7) and last through May 10. The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the full cessation of hostilities on “humanitarian grounds” for the Victory Day on May 9.
It comes as US President Donald Trump’s scaled up efforts to broker a peace deal in Ukraine. Until that moment, Putin had refused to accept a complete unconditional ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Ukraine’s mobilization effort.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine and Russia targeted each other with long-range strikes, officials said Monday, amid continuing uncertainty about whether an agreement to stop their more than three-year war is within reach at the start of what America’s top diplomat called a “very critical” week.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 119 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over Russia’s Bryansk border region. In Ukraine, air raid sirens rang out across the country Monday morning. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The outcome of a push by US President Donald Trump’s administration to swiftly end the fighting remains unclear, clouded by conflicting claims and doubts about how far each side might be willing to compromise amid deep hostility and mistrust.
The clock is ticking on Washington’s engagement in efforts to resolve Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that this week would be “very critical.” The US needs to “make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
American military aid has been crucial for Ukraine’s war effort, and further help could be at risk if the Trump administration walks away from attempts to end the war.
Trump said at the weekend he harbors doubts about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sincerity in pursuing a deal, as Russian forces have continued to strike civilian areas of Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles while the talks have proceeded.
But on Friday, Trump described a brokered settlement on the war as “close.”
Western European officials have accused the Kremlin of dragging its feet on peace talks so that Russian forces, which are bigger than Ukraine’s and have battlefield momentum, can capture more Ukrainian land.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the war in a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The two diplomats focused on “consolidating the emerging prerequisites for starting negotiations,” the statement said, without offering further details.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions. Ukraine has accepted it, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says.
A French diplomatic official said at the weekend that Trump, Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed “to pursue in the coming days the work of convergence” to obtain “a solid ceasefire.”
The diplomat said a truce is a “prior condition for a peace negotiation that respects the interest of Ukraine and the Europeans.”
The official was not authorized to be publicly named in accordance with French presidential policy.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has balked at the possibility of surrendering land to Russia in return for peace, which Washington has indicated could be necessary.
A key point of leverage for Ukraine could be a deal with Washington that grants access to Ukraine’s critical mineral wealth.
Ukraine and the United States have made progress on a mineral agreement, with both sides agreeing that American aid provided so far to Kyiv will not be taken into account under the terms of the deal, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Sunday.
“We have good progress,” he said after talks with US Treasury Under Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington.
“The main thing is that we clearly defined our red lines: The agreement must comply with Ukraine’s Constitution, legislation, and European commitments, and must be ratified by Parliament,” Shmyhal said.
The war that broke out after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022 has developed a significant international dimension, further complicating negotiations.
Putin on Monday thanked North Korea for sending what the US estimates are thousands of troops to help defeat Ukraine, as well as allegedly supplying artillery ammunition.
Iran has also helped Russia in the war, with Shahed drones, and China has sold Russia machinery and microelectronics that Moscow can use to make weapons, Western officials say.
The US and Europe have been Kyiv’s biggest backers.
Trump struggles to make good on promises to quickly end Ukraine and Gaza wars
- Trump’s inability to broker deals in Ukraine and Gaza to date might be the most demonstrable evidence his effort to more broadly shake up US foreign policy
WASHINGTON: Ahead of his second go-around in the White House, President Donald Trump spoke with certainty about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine in the first 24 hours of his new administration and finding lasting peace from the devastating 18-month conflict in Gaza.
But as the Republican president nears the 100th day of his second term, he’s struggling to make good on two of his biggest foreign policy campaign promises and is not taking well to suggestions that he’s falling short. And after criticizing President Joe Biden during last year’s campaign for preventing Israel from carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Trump now finds himself giving diplomacy a chance as he tries to curb Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
“The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, ‘What’s taken so long?’” Trump bristled, when asked about the Ukraine war in a Time magazine interview about his first 100 days. As for the Gaza conflict, he insisted the war “would have never happened. Ever. You then say, ‘What’s taking so long?’“
Measuring a US president by his first 100 days in office is an arbitrary, albeit time-honored, tradition in Washington. And brokering peace deals between intractable warring parties is typically the work of years, not weeks.
But no other president has promised to do as much out of the gate as Trump, who is pursuing a seismic makeover of America’s approach to friends and foes during his second turn in the White House.
Trump has moved at dizzying speed to shift the rules-based world order that has formed the basis for global stability and security in the aftermath of World War II.
All sides have scrambled to acclimate as Trump launched a global tariff war and slashed US foreign aid all while talking up the ideas of taking Greenland from NATO ally Denmark and making Canada the 51st state.
But Trump’s inability to broker deals in Ukraine and Gaza — at least to date — might be the most demonstrable evidence that his effort to quickly shake up US foreign policy through sheer will could have its limits.
And Trump hasn’t obscured his frustration, particularly over the Ukraine war, which he’s long dismissed as a waste of US taxpayer money and of lives lost in the conflict.
The president and his team have gone hot and cold about prospects for peace in Ukraine since Trump’s Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
In that encounter, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance lectured the Ukrainian leader for being insufficiently grateful for US assistance in the fight to repel Russia’s invading forces before asking him to leave the White House grounds.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that the White House is ready to walk away if Ukraine and Russia don’t make substantial progress toward a peace deal soon.
And Trump on back-to-back days this past week lambasted Zelensky for “prolonging” the “killing field” and then Russian President Vladimir Putin for complicating negotiations with “very bad timing” in launching brutal strikes that pummeled Kyiv.
But by Friday, Trump was expressing optimism again after his special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow with Putin. Following the talks, Trump declared that the two sides were “very close to a deal.”
Less than 24 hours later, Trump was once again downcast after he met with Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral, expressing doubt in a social media post that Putin was serious about forging a deal.
“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” Trump said of Putin and Russia’s ongoing bombardment of Ukraine.
Trump again expressed frustration with Putin in an exchange with reporters on Sunday evening. “I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” Trump said. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe. And I want him to sign it and be done with it.”
White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said Trump remains committed to getting a deal done and is “closer to that objective than at any point during Joe Biden’s presidency.”
“Within 100 days, President Trump has gotten both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table with the aim to bring this horrific war to a peaceful resolution,” Hewitt said. “It is no longer a question of if this war will end but when.”
Peace in Gaza remains elusive
Trump started his second term with some momentum on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
His envoy Witkoff, a fellow New York real estate maverick turned high-stakes diplomat, teamed up with the outgoing Biden Middle East adviser Brett McGurk to get Israeli and Hamas officials to agree to a temporary ceasefire deal that went into effect one day before Trump’s inauguration.
On the eve of his return to office, Trump took full credit for what he called an “epic” agreement that would lead to a “lasting peace” in the Middle East.
The temporary ceasefire led to the freeing of 33 hostages held in Gaza and the release of roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
But the truce collapsed in March, and fighting resumed, with the two sides unable to come to an agreement for the return of 59 remaining hostages, more that half of whom Israeli officials believe are dead.
Conditions in Gaza remain bleak. Israel has cut off all aid to the territory and its more than 2 million people. Israel has disputed that there is a shortage of aid in Gaza and says it’s entitled to block the assistance because, it claims, Hamas seizes the goods for its own use.
Trump, as he flew to Rome on Friday for the pope’s funeral, told reporters that he’s pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “very hard” to get food and medicine into Gaza but dismissed questions about how the Israeli leader is responding to his appeal.
“Well, he knows all about it, OK?” Trump told reporters.
Hewitt, the National Security Council spokesman, pushed back on the notion that Trump has fallen short on his effort to find an endgame to the Gaza conflict, setting the blame squarely on Hamas.
“While we continue to work to secure the release of all remaining hostages, Hamas has chosen violence over peace, and President Trump has ensured that Hamas continues to face the gates of hell until it releases the hostages and disarms,” Hewitt said.
Trump’s team says the president has racked up more foreign policy wins than any other US president this early in a term.
The White House counts among its early victories invoking a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport Venezuelan migrants it accuses of being gang members, securing the release of at least 46 Americans detained abroad, and carrying out hundreds of military strikes in Yemen against Houthi militants who have been attacking commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.
Trump hopeful for Iran nuclear deal breakthrough
The White House this month also launched direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program, a renewed push to solve another of the most delicate foreign policy issues facing the White House and the Middle East.
Trump says his administration is making progress in its effort to secure a deal with Iran to scupper Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Witkoff flew directly from meeting with Putin in Moscow to Muscat, Oman, to take part in talks on Saturday, the third engagement between US and Iranian officials this month.
The US and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”
Since Trump pulled out of the Obama-era deal, Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.
The president said on Friday that he’s open to meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or President Masoud Pezeshkian, while also indicating military action — something that US ally Israel has advocated — remains an option.
As Trump increasingly expresses his preference for diplomacy rather than military action, Iran hawks at home are urging him to tread carefully in his hunt for a legacy-defining deal.
“The Iranians would have the talking point that they forced the same person who left the deal many years later, after them resisting maximum pressure, into an equal or worse deal,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
But Trump wants a solution, and fast.
“I think a deal is going to be made there,” Trump said Sunday “That’s going to happen pretty soon.”
Conclave to elect new pope starts May 7: Vatican
- The date for the conclave has not yet been set but it can only begin after a nine-day period of mourning
- For inspiration they will also have the great beauty of the frescos painted by Michelangelo and other renowned Renaissance artists
VATICAN CITY: Catholic cardinals meeting in Rome on Monday have set May 7 as the start date for the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, the Vatican spokesman said.
The cardinals will take part in a solemn mass at St Peter’s Basilica, after which those eligible to vote will gather in the Sistine Chapel for the secretive ballot, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
The Vatican on Monday closed the Sistine Chapel to begin preparations for the conclave, during which Catholic cardinals from around the world cast ballots to elect a new pope.
“Notice is hereby given that the Sistine Chapel will be closed to the public as of Monday 28 April 2025 for the requirements of the conclave,” the Vatican Museums said on its website, ahead of an expected announcement of the conclave date.
Gerry Adams’ defamation case against BBC opens in Dublin
- A BBC Northern Ireland ‘Spotlight’ investigation broadcast in 2016 alleged that Adams sanctioned the 2006 murder of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson
DUBLIN: A defamation case brought by former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams against the BBC over a program alleging he was involved in killing a British spy opened in Dublin on Monday.
A BBC Northern Ireland “Spotlight” investigation broadcast in 2016 alleged that Adams sanctioned the 2006 murder of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson.
At a press conference in 2005, Adams revealed that Donaldson spied for the British intelligence agency MI5.
The 55-year-old, who later admitted working as a British agent, was found shot dead in County Donegal, where he lived close to the Northern Ireland border.
In 2009, dissident Irish republican paramilitary group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the murder.
The BBC program featured testimonies that claimed Adams sanctioned the killing.
Adams denies the accusations and is suing the BBC for damages over the “Spotlight” episode and an article on the BBC website that he alleges are defamatory.
The case at Dublin’s High Court is expected to last around three weeks.
In total, more than 3,600 people were killed during Northern Ireland’s sectarian conflict known as the “Troubles,” which largely ended after a 1998 peace accord.
In 2018 Adams stepped down as leader of Sinn Fein – the pro-Irish unity paramilitary IRA’s political wing during the Troubles – and has always denied being a member of the IRA.
China, Philippines trade barbs over disputed reef
- The Sandy Cay reef lies near Thitu Island, or Pag-asa, where the Philippines stations troops and maintains a coast guard monitoring base
- Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Saturday that the country’s coast guard had ‘implemented maritime control’ over Tiexian Reef, part of Sandy Cay
MANILA: China and the Philippines on Monday defended their claims to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, after Manila accused Beijing of seeking to “intimidate and harass” with a state media report that suggested the area had been seized.
The Sandy Cay reef lies near Thitu Island, or Pag-asa, where the Philippines stations troops and maintains a coast guard monitoring base.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Saturday that the country’s coast guard had “implemented maritime control” over Tiexian Reef, part of Sandy Cay, in mid-April.
The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
“There is no truth whatsoever to the claim of the China Coast Guard that the (Sandy Cay sandbanks) have been seized,” National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told a Monday press conference.
“It’s in the interest of the People’s Republic of China to use the information space to intimidate and harass,” he said, calling the Sandy Cay report a “made-up” story that had been “irresponsible” to disseminate.
CCTV on Saturday published a photograph of four coast guard officials posing with a national flag on the reef’s white surface, in what the broadcaster described as a “vow of sovereignty.”
On Monday, the Philippine Coast Guard released its own photo showing Filipino sailors holding the country’s flag over the same disputed reef during an early morning mission the day before.
There do not appear to be any signs that China has permanently occupied or built a structure on the reef, which is a group of small sandbanks in the Spratly Islands.
Beijing’s foreign ministry on Monday reiterated the reef was part of China’s territory and said its moves constituted “rights protection and law enforcement activities.”
Spokesman Guo Jiakun said the steps were “aimed at countering the Philippines’ illegal landing and other acts of infringement and provocation” as well as “firmly safeguarding national territorial sovereignty.”
In recent months, Beijing and Manila have blamed each other for causing what they describe as the ecological degradation of several disputed landforms in the South China Sea.
The US and Philippine militaries are currently conducting joint exercises that Beijing has said constitute a threat to regional stability.
Chinese warships have been spotted in Philippine waters since those bilateral “Balikatan” exercises kicked off last week, with aircraft carrier Shandong reportedly coming within 2.23 nautical miles (about four kilometers) of northern Babuyan Island.
