MINSK/DONETSK: Civilians were killed on both sides in heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine on Friday, while an attempt to reopen peace talks in neighbouring Belarus was aborted before it began.
Two rebel delegates flew to the Belarus capital Minsk, only to announce that talks would not take place on Friday and they were flying back to Moscow. Any talks would be the first since a five-month-old cease-fire collapsed with a new rebel advance last week.
The main rebel stronghold Donetsk echoed to the sound of heavy artillery fire, including salvoes from multiple rocket launchers and heavier thuds from artillery coming from the direction of the airport, a constant battlefield.
A Reuters cameraman in Donetsk saw four covered bodies near a cultural centre hit by artillery, and a fifth dead person in a badly-damaged car nearby. A woman was weeping by one of the bodies. Humanitarian aid was being distributed at the centre when the shell struck. A kilometer (half mile) away, a sixth dead person lay where a trolleybus had been hit. The separatists said the total death toll in those two strikes was seven.
Kiev said Friday’s shelling of Donetsk was carried out by the rebels themselves to ruin the chance of peace talks. Both sides have made similar allegations throughout the conflict, which are impossible to verify. “We are already used to this artillery and there’s nothing we can do about it. Our boys are defending us,” said Alla, a shopkeeper in downtown Donetsk.
The head of Ukraine’s regional police said in a Facebook post that seven other civilians had been killed and ten injured as a result of fighting in an around the government-held small towns of Debaltseve and Vuhlehirsk, focus of the rebel advance. Water and electricity have been cut off in the towns, where government garrisons are all but encircled by rebel fighters.
Kiev’s military said five of its servicemen had been killed and 23 wounded in fighting in the past 24 hours, describing the situation in the conflict zone as “hard.”
“They are repeatedly using Grad (missiles), artillery, mortars, tanks and rocket launchers,” spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing. “The fiercest fighting continues around the town of Vuhlehirsk. After mass artillery attacks, the terrorists repeatedly stormed Ukrainian army checkpoints.”
The past week has seen by far the worst fighting in Ukraine since the cease-fire was signed five months ago, with the rebels announcing an offensive that Kiev says amounts to a full repudiation of the truce.
NATO and Kiev accuse Russia of sending thousands of troops to support the rebel advance with heavy weapons and tanks. Moscow denies it is directly involved in fighting over territory that the Kremlin refers to as “New Russia.”
European Union foreign ministers agreed at an emergency meeting on Thursday to extend for another six months economic sanctions against Russia that had been due to expire soon. Washington has promised to tighten its own sanctions, which have helped feed an economic crisis in Russia. The arrival of rebel negotiators in Minsk, where last year’s cease-fire was first reached as part of a peace deal in September, was the first sign of a reopening of negotiations since the rebels launched their latest advance.
But neither Kiev nor Moscow confirmed that they were ready for talks, and one of the rebel officials, Denis Pushilin, swiftly announced they were heading back to Moscow. He said the rebels were prepared to press on with their offensive and seize more territory if artillery continues to fall on Donetsk and other cities they control.
“If shelling resumes, then we reserve for ourselves the right to continue the offensive and go to the very borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” he said, referring to the two provinces where separatists have declared “people’s republics.”
So far, most fighting in the rebels’ latest advance has taken place near the capitals of the two regions and near Debaltseve, a government-held small town controlling a road and rail route linking the two main rebel strongholds.
The immediate fear of Kiev and its NATO allies is of a rebel offensive on Mariupol, a port of 500,000 people which is by far the biggest government-held city in the two restive provinces.
It was hit by shelling on Saturday which Kiev said killed 30 civilians, although the rebels have since denied that it is a target for now. The rebels halted at its gates during their last big advance five months ago.
The rebels have said their principal aims in the advance are to push government guns out of range of their cities, and make their positions more secure by “straightening out the front” — choking off a government-held pocket around Debaltseve.
Both are moves that would make existing rebel areas more defensible over the long term, if, as many Western countries say they suspect, Moscow’s aim is to pursue a stable “frozen conflict” in eastern Ukraine.
A rebel assault on Mariupol, with the potential to unleash unprecedented urban warfare, is a far more dangerous prospect. While the rebels say they are not trying to capture it yet, they have repeatedly said they reserve the right to do so, a threat they may be holding out to obtain better terms at talks.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry said it was ready to participate in talks either Friday or Saturday but it was waiting for an agreement on draft documents about implementing last September’s Minsk agreements, including on withdrawing heavy military equipment.
Ukraine peace talks aborted as civilians die in Donetsk
Ukraine peace talks aborted as civilians die in Donetsk
A look at who has been detained or deported in a US crackdown on mostly pro-Palestinian protesters
- Friends and colleagues of Ozturk said her only known activism was co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel
WASHINGTON: People with ties to American universities, most of whom have shown support for pro-Palestinian causes, have been detained in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.
President Donald Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against Israel’s actions in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Trump’s administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing the secretary of state to revoke visas of noncitizens who could be considered a threat to foreign policy interests. More than half a dozen people are known to have been taken into custody or deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in recent weeks.
Rumeysa Ozturk
Federal officers detained 30-year-old Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk on Tuesday as she walked along a street in suburban Boston. A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said without providing evidence that an investigation found Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” which is also a US-designated terrorist group.
Friends and colleagues of Ozturk said her only known activism was co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel. Ozturk has been taken to an ICE detention center in Louisiana. A US District judge in Massachusetts on Friday said Ozturk can’t be deported to Turkiye without a court order and gave the government until Tuesday evening to respond to an updated complaint filed by Ozturk’s attorneys.
Mahmoud Khalil
This month, immigration enforcement agents arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident, Palestinian activist and graduate student who was prominent in protests at Columbia last year. The administration has said it revoked Khalil’s green card because his role in the campus protests amounted to antisemitic support for Hamas. He is fighting deportation.
Khalil served as a negotiator for Columbia students as they bargained with university officials over ending their campus encampment last spring. He was born in Syria and is married to an American citizen. His lawyers urged a federal judge on Friday to free their client from a Louisiana immigration detention center and argued his case should not be moved to Louisiana courts. The judge said he would issue a decision soon.
Yunseo Chung
Yunseo Chung is a Columbia student and lawful US resident who moved to America from Korea as a child. Chung attended and was arrested at a sit-in this month at nearby Barnard College protesting the expulsion of students who participated in pro-Palestinian activism.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to deport Chung and has said she “engaged in concerning conduct,” including being arrested on a misdemeanor charge. A judge ordered immigration agents not to detain Chung while her legal challenge is pending.
Badar Khan Suri
Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown scholar from India, was arrested outside his Virginia home and detained by masked Homeland Security agents on allegations that he spread Hamas propaganda. Suri’s attorney wrote in a court filing that he was targeted because of his social media posts and his wife’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.” Suri holds a visa authorizing him to be in the US as a visiting scholar, and his wife is a US citizen, according to court documents.
Suri was taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, according to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings.
Leqaa Kordia
Leqaa Kordia, a resident of Newark, New Jersey, was detained and accused of failing to leave the US after her student visa expired. Federal authorities said Kordia is a Palestinian from the West Bank and that she was arrested at or near Columbia during pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia has said it has no record of her being a student there.
Kordia is being held in an immigration detention center in Alvarado, Texas, according to a government database.
Ranjani Srinivasan
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral student at Columbia, fled the US after immigration agents searched for her at her university residence. The Trump administration has said it revoked Srinivasan’s visa for “advocating for violence and terrorism.” Srinivasan opted to “self-deport.”
Officials didn’t say what evidence they have that Srinivasan advocated violence. Her lawyers deny the accusations, and she told The New York Times that she didn’t help to organize protests at Columbia.
Alireza Doroudi
University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi of Iran was detained by ICE on Tuesday. David Rozas, a lawyer representing Doroudi, says Douridi was studying mechanical engineering. His student visa was revoked in 2023, but his lawyer has said he was eligible to continue his studies as long as he maintained his student status and met other requirements of his entry into the United States.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Friday that the arrest was made over the revocation of Doroudi’s student visa, saying he “posed significant national security concerns.” A spokesperson said they could not share additional details.
Unlike some other students targeted by ICE, Dorudi’s lawyer said there is no indication that his client was involved in any political protests. Doroudi told his lawyer he isn’t aware of any suspected criminal activity or violations. He was detained in Alabama but will be moved to an immigration facility in Jena, Louisiana.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist from Lebanon who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported this month, even though a federal judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held. Homeland Security officials said Alawieh was deported as soon as she returned to the US from Lebanon, despite having a US visa, because she “openly admitted” supporting former Hezbollah leaderHassan Nasrallah. Alawieh told officers she followed him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics, court documents said.
She was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine. Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh’s lawyer, has said she will fight to get the 34-year-old doctor back to the US
Momodou Taal
Momodou Taal is a doctoral student at Cornell University whose visa was revoked after he participated in campus demonstrations.
Taal, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia, has asked a federal judge to halt his detention during his court challenge. The government says it revoked Taal’s student visa because of his alleged involvement in “disruptive protests.”
His attorneys say the 31-year-old doctoral student in Africana studies was exercising free speech rights. Taal said he will surrender to immigration authorities if the court determines the government is acting legally. Taal said in a court declaration that “I feel like a prisoner already, although all I have done is exercise my rights.”
Remaining USAID staff fired, Trump says Myanmar will still get earthquake aid
- Thousands of USAID staff and Foreign Service officers assigned to the agency learned in an internal memo that all positions not required by law would be eliminated in July and September
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration told Congress on Friday it would cut nearly all remaining jobs at the US Agency for International Development and shut the agency, even as Trump promised that the US would provide assistance to Myanmar following a devastating earthquake.
Humanitarian aid experts expressed alarm at the new cuts to an agency whose humanitarian aid has gained Washington influence and saved lives across the globe for more than 60 years. USAID plays a major role in coordinating earthquake assistance.
Thousands of USAID staff and Foreign Service officers assigned to the agency learned in an internal memo that all positions not required by law would be eliminated in July and September.
The memo reviewed by Reuters was sent to staff by Jeremy Lewin, the agency’s acting deputy administrator and a member of billionaire Elon Musk’s job-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE oversaw a first round of cuts to USAID last month.
The State Department notification to Congress of the job cuts, also seen by Reuters, said USAID missions worldwide would be closed and the agency’s remaining functions would be folded into State.
Cuts at the agency have thrown humanitarian efforts around the world into turmoil. The latest notice came on the day that a powerful earthquake hit Thailand and Myanmar, toppling buildings and killing scores of people. USAID has historically played a major role in coordinating disaster relief efforts.
A US appeals court on Friday
ruled that Musk and DOGE can keep making cuts to USAID while they appeal a lower court order that had barred them from doing so.
US Representative Gregory Meeks, top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that closing USAID was illegal and aimed at withdrawing the US “from its global leadership role with as much cruelty and disruption as possible.”
The exact number of personnel being fired was not immediately available. As of March 21, there were 869 US direct hire personnel on active duty and working, while 3,848 others were on paid administrative leave, according to Stand Up for Aid, a grassroots advocacy group.
The terminations also included thousands of Foreign Service officers on assignment to USAID around the globe, according to a source familiar with the matter.
In his memo, Lewin said agency personnel worldwide would shortly receive emailed termination notices giving them the choice of being fired on July 1 or September 2.
Over the next three months, the State Department would assume USAID’s remaining “life-saving and strategic aid programming,” he said, adding that USAID personnel will not automatically be transferred to the department, which would conduct “a separate and independent hiring process.”
Trump in January ordered a 90-day freeze of all US foreign aid and a review of whether aid programs were aligned with his policy. He claimed without evidence that Musk had found fraud at the agency, which he said was run by “radical left lunatics.”
Musk and DOGE gained access to USAID’s payment and email systems, froze many payments and told much of its staff they were being placed on leave. On February 3, Musk wrote on X that he had “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
On Friday, a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had notified the US Congress of its intent to reorganize USAID, saying the agency had “strayed from its original mission long ago.”
“We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” Rubio said.
The decision to cut the remaining USAID jobs sparked concern among humanitarian aid experts, who said the firings and funding cuts would prevent a concerted US response to the earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand.
In a post on X, Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official who is president of Refugees International, called the move “a total abdication of decades of US leadership in the world.”
He said the firings will cut “the last remnants of the team that would have mobilized a USAID disaster response” to the earthquake.
Trump on Friday said he had spoken with officials in Myanmar about the earthquake and that the US would provide assistance.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the changes at USAID would not affect the administration’s ability to deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, adding she could not give a timeline.
The former USAID disaster response chief told Reuters the Trump administration’s massive personnel and funding cuts have “kneecapped” the agency’s ability to send disaster response teams to Thailand and Myanmar, opening the way to China and other US rival countries.
“I suspect we will see very shortly Chinese teams showing up, if they haven’t already, possibly Turkish, Russian, Indian teams really making their presence known in support of people that are really suffering right now in Thailand and Burma, and the US won’t be there,” said Sarah Charles, who served as assistant USAID administrator for humanitarian affairs until February 2024, using the former name of Myanmar.
Charles said contracts with urban search and rescue teams from Los Angeles and Virginia had been “turned back on” after being cut.
But, she said commercial contracts for transporting those teams remained cut and non-governmental aid groups that normally would provide emergency water, sanitation and medical help had laid off staff or run out of funds due to Trump’s foreign aid freeze.
“It’s really devastating to watch in real time,” she said.
Rubio said earlier this month that more than 80 percent of all USAID programs had been canceled.
Elon Musk says xAI startup buying X platform
SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk on Friday said his artificial intelligence startup xAI is buying his social networking platform X in a deal valuing the company once known as Twitter at $33 billion.
“This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach,” Musk said in a post on his social network.
X has more than 600 million users, and its future is “intertwined” with that of xAI, launched two years ago, according to Musk.
“Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said of combining the two companies.
“This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.”
The companies are being combined in an all-stock deal that values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, factoring in the social network’s $12 billion debt.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 in a transaction that included debt and launched xAI the following year, spending billions of dollars on high-end Nvidia chips for the venture.
xAI in February released the latest version of its chatbot, Grok 3, which the billionaire hopes will find traction in a highly competitive sector contested by the likes of ChatGPT and China’s DeepSeek.
Musk has promoted Grok 3 as “scary smart,” with 10 times the computational resources of its predecessor that was released in August last year.
Grok 3 is also going up against OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT — pitting Musk against collaborator-turned-arch rival Sam Altman.
Musk and Altman were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015.
Created as a counterweight to Google’s dominance in artificial intelligence, the project got initial funding from Musk.
Musk left three years later, and then in 2022 OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT created a global technology sensation — which made Altman a tech world star.
Their relationship has become increasingly toxic and litigious ever since.
X’s billionaire owner, the world’s richest person, is a major financial backer of US President Donald Trump and heads a Department of Government Efficiency that has been slashing the ranks of government employees.
Industry analysts at Emarketer this week forecast that ad revenue at X will grow this year as brands fear retaliation by politically connected Musk if they don’t spend on the platform.
“Many advertisers may view spending on X as a cost of doing business in order to mitigate potential legal or financial repercussions,” said Emarketer principal analyst Jasmine Enberg.
Congo doubles salaries for beleaguered army amid rebel advance
- We learned that our pay has been doubled, but we have not yet experienced this increase because our salary has been frozen
KINSHASA: Democratic Republic of Congo doubled salaries for soldiers and police on Friday, the Finance Ministry said, in an apparent bid to boost morale as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advance in the east.
M23 has seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities in a swift offensive that has left thousands dead, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi.
The Finance Ministry said that the pay hikes will be “a turning point toward better conditions” for the army. An officer in North Kivu province said on Thursday he had heard about the raises, but said that troops had not received even their basic salaries over the last two months since banks shut following the fall of the city of Goma.
“We learned that our pay has been doubled, but we have not yet experienced this increase because our salary has been frozen,” the officer said.
Congo has roughly 260,000 soldiers and other security forces, according to the 2025 budget law.
Government documents show that official monthly salaries since 2022 have averaged between $100 and $200 for all ranks.
It was not immediately clear what effect the pay raise would have on the budget.
A draft law amending the budget for 2025 was due to be sent to lawmakers earlier this month, but that has not emerged.
“These expenses are being incurred outside the budget. This is serious because no one will be able to monitor the actual numbers and salaries of the military personnel to be paid,” Valery Madianga, a Congolese expert on public finances, said.
Rwanda denies allegations from Congo and the UN that it supports the M23 with arms and troops, saying its forces are acting in self defense against Congo’s army and militias hostile to Kigali.
Rwanda’s government severed links with Belgium on March 17, accusing it of having “consistently undermined” it during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
National and international NGOs working in Rwanda have been banned from cooperating with Belgian institutions, the Rwanda Governance Board said, after Kigali cut off diplomatic ties with Brussels earlier this month.
The RGB, which oversees service delivery in the east African nation, said the ban also extended to “faith-based organizations” and common-benefit companies.
The RGB said any current projects or agreements with the Belgian government or its affiliates were “prohibited” and “must be terminated immediately and reported.” “No funds, grants, donations, or financial contributions shall be received from or disbursed to the government of Belgium, its institutions, affiliated agencies or programs,” it said in a statement issued Thursday.
“Any attempts to circumvent these financial restrictions, including indirect transactions through subsidiaries or partner organizations, will be subject to strict penalties.”
Political and human rights activist Pelly Prudence Iraguha said the decision should have been submitted to parliament.
But RGB chief executive Doris Uwicyeza Picard wrote on X: “RGB has powers to take such decisions backed by laws passed by parliament.
“These laws give RGB powers to suspend NGOs involved in activities that infringe on citizens unity or security.”
Mali condemns violence against migrants
- More than 1,800 Malian migrants have been pushed back from Mauritania in recent weeks, according to Minister for Malians Living Abroad Mossa Ag Attaher
BAMAKO: Mali says it is outraged over violence suffered by its citizens deported by neighboring Mauritania and has demanded the “flagrant violation of human rights” must end.
For several weeks, Mauritania has been throwing out migrants, mostly from neighboring countries in west Africa like Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Guinea.
The vast, arid country on the Atlantic seaboard is a departure point for many African migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea.
The authorities say their “routine” deportations target undocumented people.
But the campaign has sparked an outcry in the region.
“The government of Mali expresses its indignation and condemns with the utmost rigour the treatment suffered by its nationals in Mauritania,” it said in a statement released during a press conference on the issue held in the capital Bamako.
It also said it regretted “the conditions of arrest in flagrant violation of human rights and the rights of migrants in particular.
The government said it “calls on the Mauritanian authorities to show restraint and calls for an immediate cessation of violence against Malian nationals.”
Migrants’ rights groups such as SOS Esclaves have condemned arrests in “inhumane” conditions.
Mauritania says the migrants are returned to the border crossings through which they had entered the country.
More than 1,800 Malian migrants have been pushed back from Mauritania in recent weeks, according to Minister for Malians Living Abroad Mossa Ag Attaher.
Talks with Mauritania will continue “to preserve the solid historic ties between the two countries,” the Malian government said.
The state AMI news agency reported that Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, visited Mauritania on Thursday to deliver a message on maintaining the “friendly and brotherly relations” between the two countries.
His Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, raised the issue of their respective citizens in each other’s country, AMI said.
But Ould Merzoug insisted that Mauritania “has the right to take all necessary measures to ensure its security and to protect its citizens,” the agency reported.
