Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began a two-day visit to Turkey on Tuesday for talks on unblocking grain exports from Ukraine, which have been stalled by Moscow’s offensive amid a UN warning of worldwide food crisis due to the war. This comes as fighting intensifies in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he hoped issues relating to grain shipments from ports in Ukraine could be resolved, provided Kyiv de-mines the waters around them. Speaking alongside his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara, Lavrov said Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine was going according to plan and that peace talks would need to resume before there was any chance of presidential talks between President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Turkey’s foreign minister said a UN plan to open a corridor to restart Ukrainian grain exports was reasonable and requires more talks with all sides to ensure ships would be safe.

Speaking alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu said their meeting in Ankara was fruitful, including a will to return to negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv for a possible ceasefire.

Source: France 24

The head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, will speak with President Vladimir Putin in the southwestern Russian city of Sochi on Friday, Dakar said.

The visit is aimed at “freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries”, along with easing the Ukraine conflict, Sall’s office said Thursday.

The visit was organised after an invitation by Putin, and Sall will travel with the president of the African Union Commission, his office added.

The AU will also receive a video address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, though no date has been set.

The UAE’s long-time de facto ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as president on Saturday, official media said, a day after the death of former leader Sheikh Khalifa.

The 61-year-old was unanimously elected by the Federal Supreme Council, WAM news agency said, becoming the ruler of the oil-rich country founded by his father in 1971.

Sheikh Mohamed, often known as ‘MBZ’, met members of the Federal Supreme Council, made up of rulers of the UAE’s seven emirates, as the country enters a period of mourning for his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa.

Sheikh Mohamed’s ascension, which was widely expected, formalises his position as leader of the desert state of 10 million after years of calling the shots while Sheikh Khalifa was sidelined by poor health.

Under his low-key direction, the United Arab Emirates has put a man in space, sent a probe to Mars and opened its first nuclear reactor, while using its oil-funded clout to develop a more assertive foreign policy.

Closely allied with Saudi Arabia, it has emerged as a leader of a reshaped Middle East since the retreat of traditional Arab powers and the reduced involvement of the United States, forging ties with Israel and joining a war against Iran-backed militants in Yemen.

Official media had already named Sheikh Mohamed as the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s richest emirate, on Friday, inheriting one of the main titles held by Sheikh Khalifa who died at 73.

Sheikh Mohamed, wearing a light grey kandura or robe, was a pall-bearer at the funeral prayers for his elder brother who was laid to rest in Abu Dhabi’s Al Bateen Cemetery just hours after his death was announced, in accordance with Muslim tradition.

‘Running the show’

Flags are at half-mast around the UAE and businesses and government offices are closed for three days as the country enters a 40-day period of mourning for Sheikh Khalifa, who had ruled since 2004.

Sheikh Khalifa’s death drew condolences from senior figures including US President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Iran, demonstrating the UAE’s diverse allegiances.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron is to travel to Abu Dhabi on Sunday to pay tribute to the late Emirati leader, his office announced.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia has put sports and entertainments on hold and several countries have announced periods of mourning.

Sheikh Mohamed, who was named crown prince of Abu Dhabi in November 2004, is the third son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan — the revered founder of the UAE.

He has been serving as deputy commander of the armed forces and chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, which controls the substantial finances of the emirate which sits on 90 percent of the country’s oil production.

The UAE, a former British protectorate, has gone from desert outpost to booming state in its short history, fuelled by its oil wealth and Dubai’s rise as a trading and financial centre.

Sheikh Mohamed took a prominent role after Sheikh Khalifa retreated from public view in 2014, when he had surgery after a stroke. The cause of his death was not announced.

The new president is likely to face greater competition to UAE’s status as the regional financial hub, particularly from Saudi Arabia, and may toughen its stance on Iran, analysts say.

But “functionally it changes little; MBZ has been running the show almost from the get go”, tweeted Ryan Bohl, a Middle East analyst at Stratfor Worldview.

Source: AFP

US President Joe Biden on Thursday named Karine Jean-Pierre as the next White House press secretary, the first Black woman to hold the high-profile post.

Jean-Pierre, who will also be the first openly LGBTQ+ person in the role, will replace Jen Psaki, under whom she served as deputy, from May 13, according to a White House statement.

Biden praised Jean-Pierre’s “experience, talent and integrity” in the statement, saying he was “proud” to announce her appointment.

“She will be the first black woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as the White House Press Secretary,” Psaki tweeted after the announcement.

“Representation matters and she will give a voice to many, but also make many dream big about what is truly possible,” added Psaki, who is due to join MSNBC after her departure, according to US media reports.

Jean-Pierre, 44, worked on both of former president Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and then on Biden’s campaign in 2020 before joining Biden’s team at the White House.

She also served under Biden during his tenure as Obama’s vice president.

Jean-Pierre was previously Chief Public Affairs Officer for liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org and worked as a political analyst with NBC and MSNBC, the White House statement said.

Raised in New York, she was born in Martinique to Haitian parents who emigrated to the United States.

A graduate of the prestigious Columbia University, Jean-Pierre has often said her family’s background, emblematic of the “American dream,” was a determining factor in her career.

She has a daughter with her partner, a journalist with CNN.

Source: AFP

Queen Elizabeth II, who has cut back on public appearances due to poor health and old age, will not attend this summer’s royal garden parties, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday.

Every summer, up to three parties take place with invited members of the public in the Buckingham Palace Garden in central London, and another at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

Since she became queen in 1952, more than 1.45 million people have attended her annual garden parties.

But a royal official said: “Her Majesty The Queen will be represented by other members of the royal family at this year’s garden parties, with details on attendance to be confirmed in due course.”

The monarch recently returned to Windsor Castle after a week-long break on her Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England, where she marked her 96th birthday in private on April 21.

Royal tradition since the 18th century has also seen the monarch have a second, official birthday, typically celebrated in warmer weather in June.

This year’s official birthday coincides with four days of public events from June 2 to 5 to mark her record-breaking 70th year on the throne.

Since an unscheduled overnight stay in hospital last October, she has cut down massively on public appearances on doctor’s orders.

A back complaint and difficulties standing and walking have seen her cancel a number of engagements, while a bout of Covid-19 in February left her “very tired and exhausted”, she admitted.

But her grandson Prince Harry told US broadcaster NBC in a recent interview that she was “on great form”.

The queen was last seen in public at Westminster Abbey in central London on March 29 at a memorial service for her late husband Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99.

Source AFP

Imran Khan was dismissed Sunday as Pakistan prime minister after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament following weeks of political turmoil.

It was not immediately clear when a new premier will be chosen, but Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif was almost certain to be picked to lead the nuclear-armed nation of 220 million people.

No prime minister has ever served a full term in Pakistan, but Khan is the first to lose office this way.

Acting speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said 174 lawmakers had voted in favour of the motion, “consequently the vote of no confidence has passed”.

Khan, 69, tried everything he could to stay in power — including dissolving parliament and calling a fresh election — but the Supreme Court deemed all his actions illegal last week, and ordered the assembly to reconvene and vote.

There was drama right until the midnight deadline ordered by the Supreme Court, with the speaker of the assembly — a Khan loyalist — resigning at the last minute.

In the end the session continued through to Sunday with a replacement.

“We will put a balm on the wounds of this nation,” Sharif said immediately after the result was announced.

Khan, who was not present, lost his majority in the 342-seat assembly through defections by coalition partners and members of his own party, and the opposition had needed just 172 votes to dismiss him.

Militancy on the rise

Whoever takes over will still have to deal with the issues that bedevilled Khan — soaring inflation, a feeble rupee and crippling debt.

Militancy is also on the rise, with Pakistan’s Taliban emboldened by the return to power last year of the hardline Islamist group in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Tempers rose earlier when Sharif insisted a vote be held immediately — as ordered by the Supreme Court on Thursday — but Khan loyalists demanded discussion first on their leader’s claims there had been foreign interference in the process.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi accused the opposition of leading the country down a dangerous path.

“History will expose all those, who set the stage for this move to topple the government,” he said, to chants of “vote, vote” from the opposition.

Khan insists he has been the victim of a “regime change” conspiracy involving the United States.

He said the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — two normally feuding dynastic groups who joined forces to oust him — had conspired with Washington to bring the no-confidence vote because of his opposition to US foreign policy, particularly in Muslim nations such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

He also accused the opposition of buying support in the assembly with “open horse-trading… selling of lawmakers like goats and sheep”.

How long the next government lasts is also a matter of speculation.

The opposition said previously they wanted an early election — which must be called by October next year — but taking power gives them the opportunity to set their own agenda and end a string of probes they said Khan launched vindictively against them.

Local media quoted an election commission official as saying it would take them at least seven months to prepare for a national vote.

Publicly the military appears to be keeping out of the current fray, but there have been four coups since independence in 1947 and the country has spent more than three decades under army rule.

Source: AFP

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson secured the support of two more Senate Republicans on Monday, as she cleared a procedural hurdle toward becoming the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s top judicial body.

Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney joined Susan Collins in saying they would vote to confirm Jackson, 51, to a lifetime seat on the court later this week. They also supported a procedural 53-47 vote to bring her nomination to the Senate floor after the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked 11-11 along party lines on whether to advance the nomination.

Murkowski and Romney, who do not serve on the Judiciary Committee, announced their backing of Jackson as the Senate began voting to “discharge” the nomination from the panel, propelling it to the full Senate.

Their endorsement came after Collins last week became the first Republican senator to announce her support for Jackson.

Jackson is expected to win the backing of all 48 Democrats and two independents, giving her a majority of support in the 100-member chamber.

Her confirmation would not change the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority, as she would fill the seat of liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring.

“After multiple in-depth conversations with Judge Jackson and deliberative review of her record and recent hearings, I will support her historic nomination to be an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court,” Murkowski said in a statement.

The three Republicans voiced concern over the increasing partisanship of the Supreme Court confirmation process.

“While I do not expect to agree with every decision she may make on the Court, I believe that she more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity,” Romney said.

Earlier, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he will “set in motion” the process that will lead to a final Senate vote later this week to confirm Jackson, a federal appellate court judge, to the lifetime post.

The committee vote followed confirmation hearings last month that again exposed a stark partisan divide toward Supreme Court nominees. Democrats praised Jackson’s qualifications and record while hailing the history-making aspect of her nomination. Republicans often pursued hostile lines of questioning and tried to paint Jackson as a dangerous liberal activist.

Three prior confirmations

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, noted on Monday that the panel had voted to confirm Jackson to three previous posts, and he lamented what he called baseless attacks by some Republicans.

“They repeatedly interrupted and badgered Judge Jackson and accused her of vile things in front of her parents, her husband and her children. There was table-pounding – some literal – from a few of my colleagues. They repeated discredited claims about Judge Jackson’s character,” Durbin said.

Several Republican senators accused her of being lenient on child pornography offenders during her time as a federal trial court judge. Jackson defended her record, saying she did her “duty to hold the defendants accountable.” Sentencing experts called the penalties she imposed within the mainstream among federal judges, while American Bar Association witnesses rejected claims that Jackson was “soft on crime.”

During her confirmation hearings, Jackson pledged independence if confirmed and embraced a limited role for jurists. She also reflected on opportunities she has had that her parents, who grew up in an era of racial segregation in the South, did not.

Senator Lindsay Graham, the committee’s sole Republican to vote to confirm Jackson last June for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, helped seal the committee’s deadlock by deciding to vote no this time.

A final confirmation vote on Jackson was expected for Thursday or Friday.

Source: REUTERS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday renewed his plea for talks with his Russian counterpart, taking to US television to say negotiations were the only way to “end this war.”

He stressed that he and President Vladimir Putin were the only principles able to thrash out a deal to stop the fighting, now in its fourth week.

But he signaled he would lay down red lines against ceding Ukrainian territory, including two pro-Moscow breakaway regions.

“I’m ready for negotiations with him,” Zelensky told CNN show “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

“I think without negotiations we cannot end this war,” the Ukrainian leader said through a translator.

The reiteration of Zelensky’s call for peace talks came as he and other Ukrainians accused Russia of committing war crimes after authorities said the invading forces had bombed a school sheltering some 400 people in the besieged city of Mariupol.

“Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us,” said Zelensky.

The leader, who has emerged as a national hero for his very public stance against Putin and his forces, has spoken of Ukrainians’ fierce resistance to the invasion and told Russia that several thousand of its soldiers have died in battle so far.

“If there is just one percent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance… to have the possibility of negotiating, the possibility of talking to Putin,” he said.

“Dialogue is the only way out,” and “I think it’s just the two of us, me and Putin, who can make an agreement on this,” Zelensky said.

“If these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third world war.” Zelensky repeatedly has warned of the potential for the Russia-Ukraine conflict to mushroom into an all-out global war.

Last month, in a move seen as precipitating the conflict, Putin recognized two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk, as independent entities, and debate has simmered about whether Zelensky might concede the regions as a way to bring the war to a close.

But on Sunday Zelensky stood defiant: “You cannot just demand from Ukraine to recognize some territories as independent republics,” he told CNN.

“These compromises are simply wrong,” he added. “We have to come up with a model where Ukraine will not lose its sovereignty, it’s territorial integrity.”

The crisis in Ukraine, in which Putin has sought to eradicate pro-Western leanings in the ex-Soviet state, has already triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Source:  AFP

China says it does not want to get caught up in the diplomatic and economic blowback Russia is facing from Western nations over its invasion of Ukraine.

State media said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed his government’s wishes during a lengthy phone conversation Monday with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

According to a transcript of the phone call published Monday by the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang told Albares that Beijing is “not a party to the crisis” and does not want to be “affected” by the mounting economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over the nearly 3-week-old invasion.

The conversation took place as U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and officials from the National Security Council and State Department met in Rome with China’s top foreign policy adviser, Yang Jiechi. The Biden administration has warned that Beijing would face severe “consequences” if it helps Moscow avoid sanctions.

Media reports emerged Sunday that Moscow has requested military and economic assistance from China for its war in Ukraine.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian Tuesday repeated an accusation leveled by Beijing that the United States is spreading “disinformation” over reports that China has responded positively to Moscow’s request.

Zhao calls the reports “not only unprofessional, but also immoral and irresponsible.”

He told reporters China’s position is “completely objective, impartial and constructive.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Monday that the United States is watching very closely the extent to which China, or any other country, provides any form of support to Russia.

“We have communicated very clearly to Beijing that we won’t stand by, we will not allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses,” he said.

CNN reported late Monday that the United States told European and Asian allies in a diplomatic cable that China had indicated a willingness to help Russia in the war against Ukraine. CNN said the cable did not state definitively that assistance had been provided and that it warned that China would likely deny any such offer.

Chinese arms sales to Russia would have “a devastating impact on the U.S.-China relationship, because it would clearly align the Chinese with the Russians, against the United States, Europe in a war,” Robert Ross, a political science professor at Boston College, told VOA.

China is in a unique position because of its partnership agreement with Russia, according to Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. He told VOA that China has “considerably greater” leverage over Russia than even Western countries that have implemented “unprecedented sanctions” on Russia.

 “China has something that the West does not have, and that is the partnership,” with Russia, he said.

Source: VOA

Israel’s premier stepped into the role of mediator Saturday as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine intensified, holding a three-hour meeting at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin before calling Ukraine’s president and flying to Berlin.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s sit-down with Putin was the first by foreign leader since the day Russian forces invaded Ukraine last week, and came after Kyiv had asked Israel to launch a dialogue with Moscow.

Bennett has so far walked a very cautious line on the Ukraine crisis, seeking to preserve delicate security cooperation with Russia, which has a large military presence in Israel’s northern neighbour, Syria.

Bennett has not joined Western leaders — notably key ally the United States — in forcefully condemning the invasion, instead stressing Israel’s strong relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

Ahead of his Moscow trip, Bennett had spoken by telephone repeatedly with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Bennett’s office said he left Israel for Moscow early Saturday, itself an extraordinary move for a religious Jew who does not conduct state business on the Jewish Shabbath, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Bennett and Putin met for three hours, in a visit that was coordinated with the US, Germany and France, an Israeli official said.

Bennett’s delegation included his housing minister, fluent Russian speaker Zeev Elkin, who was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union.

The Kremlin said “different aspects of the situation in Ukraine” were discussed during “the short working visit”.

After the Putin meeting, Bennett called Zelensky — who is Jewish, has family in Israel and has visited the country many times.

Bennett then headed to Germany for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz scheduled for late Saturday.

A statement from the French presidency said Emmanuel Macron also spoke to Bennett before he left for Moscow on Saturday, as part of joint efforts to “obtain a ceasefire in Ukraine”.

Iran

While the Bennett-Putin talks were primarily focused on the fighting in Ukraine, the meeting also “touched upon the progress of the (Iran) nuclear talks in Vienna,” the Israeli official said.

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier Saturday after talks in Tehran that they agreed on an approach to resolve issues crucial in efforts to revive the country’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Bennett is a staunch opponent of global efforts to revive the agreement which gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

The premier has argued that Tehran will use the revenue boost from the lifting of sanctions to buy weapons that can harm Israel, while still pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Iran denies.

Russia, which has itself been slapped with Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, said Saturday that it would seek guarantees from Washington before backing any revived agreement, complicating efforts for a rapid deal.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had requested that the US give it written guarantees that Ukraine-related sanctions “will not in any way harm our rights to free, fully-fledged trade and economic and investment cooperation, military-technical cooperation with Iran”.

There was no immediate comment on any link between the new Russian position and Bennett’s visit.

The meeting with Bennett was the first the Russian leader had scheduled since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin received Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Kremlin on the day the invasion began, in a visit that was long scheduled but widely considered ill-timed.

On Monday, Khan defended the trip — the first by a Pakistani leader to Russia in more than two decades — saying it would prove beneficial in the future.

Source: AFP