13/12/2025

SATURDAY | DEC 13, 2025

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Trump ‘frustrated’ with Kyiv, Moscow over peace talks

RUSSIAN POVERTY RATE AT HISTORIC LOW, SAYS PUTIN MOSCOW: Russia’s poverty rate has dropped by more than 20 percentage points over the past two decades, reaching a historic low, said Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, reported Xinhua. Russia is on track to meet its targets of lowering the poverty rate to below 7% by 2030 and below 5% by 2036, he added. He said Russia will introduce a new support measure for families with two or more children, offering subsidies to households whose per capita income in the previous year was below 1.5 times the regional minimum subsistence level. Social pensions will be adjusted in line with the minimum subsistence standard for pensioners, with plans to raise the level next year, added Putin. He also highlighted that wage growth could boost domestic demand and strengthen the country’s production and service sectors. – Bernama-Xinhua IRAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT BEIRUT FOR TALKS TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday he would travel to Beirut for talks after receiving a formal invitation from his Lebanese counterpart, who a day earlier had declined to visit Tehran for direct talks. Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raji said “current conditions” prevented him from travelling to Tehran, but stressed that the move did not mean rejection of dialogue with Iran. Raji said Lebanon is ready to open a new phase of relations with Iran based on mutual respect, sovereignty and non-interference. He added that no strong state could be built unless the government held the exclusive right to bear arms, in an apparent reference to calls to disarm Hezbollah. – Reuters

BR I E F S

Moscow has not made a formal territorial claim. Russia claimed on Thursday to have captured the town of Siversk in the Donetsk region, where its army is advancing at its fastest pace in a year, according to AFP’s analysis. Ukraine’s army’s eastern command denied the claim. After holding a video conference to discuss the latest proposals, Ukraine’s European allies said “this is a pivotal moment for Ukraine, its people and the security we all share across the Euro-Atlantic region”, the British prime minister’s office said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday “the coming week will be decisive” in seeking to find a “just and sustainable peace for Ukraine”. “Sustainable means that any peace agreement must not contain the seeds of future conflict and destabilise the broader European security architecture.” Trump has largely sought to sideline Europe from the process, preferring to deal directly with Moscow and Kyiv in shuttle diplomacy led by his envoy Steve Witkoff and lately, his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Zelensky said although there is no strict deadline to finalise an agreement, Washington wants to have the contours of a deal ready by Christmas. – AFP

where it is in the south of the country, but pull some of its troops out of Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not claimed to have annexed in the north. Ukraine has been revising the original US proposal and this week sent a 20-point counter-proposal to Washington, the full details of which have not been published. “We have two key points of disagreement: the territories of Donetsk and everything related to them, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (in the south). These are the topics we continue to discuss,” said Zelensky. He has long said he has no “Constitutional” or “moral” right to cede Ukrainian land, and said on Thursday Ukrainians should have the final word. “Whether through elections or a referendum, there must be a position from the people of Ukraine.” He also pushed back against the idea of a unilateral Ukrainian withdrawal in the Donetsk region. “Why does the other side of the war not pull back the same distance in the other direction?” he said, adding that there are “a great many questions” still unresolved. Under the US plan, Russia would relinquish territory it has captured in the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions, areas over which

o Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia remain two key points of disagreement

KYIV: US President Donald Trump is “extremely frustrated” with Russia and Ukraine, his spokesperson said on Thursday, as Kyiv said Washington is still pushing it to make major territorial concessions as part of its plan to end the nearly four-year war. “Trump is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war. He does not want any more talk. He wants action. He wants this war to come to an end,” said Karoline Leavitt. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier made remarks that appeared to show little had changed in Washington’s core position on how the conflict should end since it sent a 28-point plan to Kyiv and Moscow last month that heavily favoured Russia. Washington wants only Ukraine, not Russia, to withdraw its troops from parts of the eastern Donetsk region, where a demilitarised “free economic zone” would be installed as a buffer between the two armies, said Zelensky. Under the latest US plan, Moscow would stay Israeli ministers want flag-raising ceremony in Gaza JERUSALEM: Eleven Israeli ministers, including eight from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, urged the Defence minister on Thursday to authorise a flag-raising ceremony in the Gaza Strip on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. In a letter published by the ultra-nationalist pro-settlement movement Nachala, which kickstarted the initiative, they said:“It is time to proudly affirm that Gaza is part of the Land of Israel, belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, and must immediately become part of the State of Israel.” “We request an authorisation for this event, which is essentially intended to hoist the Israeli flag over the ruins of the town of Nissanit,“ the letter reads, referring to a former Israeli settlement in Gaza dismantled during Israel’s withdrawal from the territory in 2005. Among the signatories were far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and eight ministers from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, including Transport Minister Miri Regev. The letter was also signed by 21 members of the Knesset, out of the Parliament’s 120 lawmakers, from Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party and Likud, who are not part of Netanyahu’s Cabinet. Nachala announced plans to hold “a flag-raising ceremony in Nissanit”, which lies in an area of Gaza under Israeli army control. The event is scheduled for Dec 18, the fifth night of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights that begins tomorrow. The Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on the letter. On Wednesday, the Israeli army said it arrested “several Israeli civilians (who) crossed the border from Israeli territory into the Gaza Strip”. Honenu, an Israeli legal aid organisation that assists detainees mainly from settler communities, said on Thursday “dozens of right-wing activists crossed the border fence with Gaza on Wednesday to call for the establishment of a settlement on the ruins of Nissanit”. Under the ceasefire that came into effect on Oct 10 between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli military withdrew to a line inside the Gaza Strip that allows it to control over more than half the territory. – AFP

Based on flood risk analysis, more than 760 displacement sites hosting some 850,000 people are at risk of flooding. – AFPPIC

Floods threatening displaced Palestinian population: UN HAMILTON: The United Nations (UN) warned on Thursday that severe flooding across hundreds of displacement sites in the Gaza Strip was placing nearly half of the territory’s population at increased risk as heavy rains worsen already dire conditions, Anadolu Ajansi reported. He noted that the rapid joint response system in the enclave has “processed over 160 flooding alerts” since Thursday.

continue to serve communities despite operating under severe constraints that limit their ability to scale up the response,” he said, noting the need for more crossings and routes to “bring a wider range of relief items into Gaza”. Since Wednesday, thousands of tents were sitting on pools of water, soaking bedding, clothing and food supplies, and leaving hundreds of Palestinian families exposed to the cold without warmth or adequate shelter. Earlier assessments indicate that Gaza needs about 300,000 tents and prefabricated housing units to meet the most basic shelter requirements. The UN estimates the cost of reconstructing Gaza at about US$70 billion (RM286 billion). – Bernama-Anadolu

Highlighting that UN partners on the ground are helping families prepare for flooding by distributing empty flour sacks to be used as sandbags, along with tools and sand wherever possible, Haq said: “Based on their flood risk analysis, more than 760 displacement sites hosting roughly 850,000 people are at the highest risk of flooding. That is about 40% of Gaza’s population.” Haq emphasised that “restrictions on humanitarian operations must be eased or lifted”. “This includes ending the ongoing ban on most international NGOs and on UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees), which

“Heavy rains have flooded tents, soaked people’s belongings and increased health risks, including hypothermia among babies and illnesses linked to overflowing sewage,” said UN spokesperson Farhan Haq, citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “Our teams on the ground set up a system for a rapid joint response to flooding alerts,” he said, adding that UN agencies and NGOs are distributing tents, tarps, warm clothes, blankets and dignity kits across Gaza.