19/04/2025

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Trump threatens to ditch Ukraine peace push PARIS: President Donald Trump will walk away from trying to broker a Russia Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be done, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday. “We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months. So we need to determine quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days, whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks,” Rubio said in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders. “The president feels very strongly about that. He has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this ... this is important, but there are a lot of other really important things that deserve just as much, if not more attention.” There was no immediate comment from Paris, London, Berlin, Kyiv or Moscow on Rubio’s statement, which coincided with signs of some progress in US talks with Ukraine. Trump said on Thursday he expected to sign a deal with Kyiv next week that would give the US access to Ukraine’s minerals. An attempt to sign a minerals pact in February fell apart after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy clashed with Trump and Vice-President JD Vance. After the talks in Paris on Thursday – the first substantive, high level and in person talks on Trump’s peace push that have included European powers – Rubio said a US peace framework received an “encouraging reception”. Zelenskiy’s office called the talks constructive and positive. Rubio’s comments underline mounting frustrations in the White House over a lack of progress in pushes to settle a growing list of geopolitical challenges. Trump promised during his election campaign to end the war in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in the White House. He moderated that claim on taking office, suggesting a deal by April or May as obstacles mounted. He has pressured both sides to come to the negotiating table, threatening tougher sanctions on Russia or an end to US military support for Kyiv. Both Ukraine and Russia showed up for US-brokered talks in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in a partial ceasefire, but nothing more. – Reuters

US attacks Yemen fuel port

SANAA: US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port killed at least 38 people, Houthi rebels said yesterday, in one of the deadliest attacks of Washington’s renewed campaign against the group. The strikes also injured more than 100 people, according to a Houthi-run television station that broadcast footage of large blazes. The US military said its attack on the Ras Issa fuel port aimed to cut off a source of supplies and funds for the Houthis, who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country. “Thirty-eight workers and employees killed and 102 others injured in a preliminary toll of the o TV channel reports 38 dead, 108 injured 15 killed in Israeli strikes GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said yesterday that 15 people, including 10 from one family, had been killed in two strikes. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Telegram that “our crews recovered the bodies of 10 martyrs and a large number of wounded from the house of one family and the neighbouring houses targeted by Israeli occupation forces in the Bani Suhaila area east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Bassal later announced that a separate strike hit two houses in northern Gaza’s Tal al-Zaatar, where crews had “recovered the bodies of five people”. The Israeli military, which did not immediately comment, has intensified its aerial bombardments and expanded its ground operations in the Gaza Strip since it resumed its

missile against international shipping in protest at Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip. Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March and resumed its offensive in the Palestinian territory on March 18, leaving a ceasefire in tatters. Separately, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Chinese satellite firm Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company was “directly supporting Houthi attacks on US interests”. “Their actions – and Beijing’s support of the company, even after our private engagements with them – is yet another example of China’s empty claims to support peace,” she told journalists. Bruce did not initially provide details but later referred to “a Chinese company providing satellite imagery to Houthis”. – AFP launches

was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis.” Ships “have continued to supply fuel via the port of Ras Issa” despite Washington this year designating the rebels a terrorist organisation, CENTCOM added. In images broadcast early yesterday by Al-Masirah, a fireball was seen igniting off the coast as thick columns of smoke rose above what appeared to be a blaze. The Houthi TV station later broadcast interviews with survivors of the attack lying on stretchers. “The strikes came one after the other, then everything was on fire,” said one port worker. US strikes on the Houthis began under former president Joe Biden but have resumed and intensified under President Donald Trump. The new wave of attacks follows Houthi threats to resume drone and

US aggression on the Ras Issa oil facility,” Al-Masirah TV said, quoting health authorities in rebel held Hodeida. AFP could not independently verify the casualty toll. The US military has hammered the Houthis with near-daily air strikes since March 15 in a bid to end their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Claiming solidarity with Palestinians, the rebels began attacking the key maritime routes and Israel after the Gaza war began in October 2023, later pausing their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire. In a statement, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said: “US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Houthis and deprive them of illegal revenue. “The objective of these strikes

A boy scooping up flour from the ground in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a tent shelter in Khan Younis. – AFPPIC

Islamabad, confirmed at least 11 incidents in which KFC outlets were attacked by protesters. At least 178 people were arrested, officials said. KFC and its parent Yum Brands, both US-based, did not respond to requests for comment. – AFP/Reuters

scores of people in Pakistan in recent weeks after more than 10 mob attacks on outlets of fast-food chain KFC, sparked by anti-United States sentiment and opposition to its ally Israel’s war in Gaza. Police in major cities, including the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore and the capital

offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory on March 18. On Thursday, the civil defence agency reported the deaths of at least 40 residents in Israeli strikes, most of them in camps for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive. Meanwhile, police have arrested