Author: potus

As recently as January, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia emphatically rejected the idea of a temporary cease-fire in Ukraine.But after a month in which President Trump turned American foreign policy on its head and Russian forces made progress in a key battle, the Kremlin now appears keen at least to entertain the 30-day cease-fire proposal made by Ukraine and the United States on Tuesday.Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, told reporters on Wednesday that the Kremlin was “carefully studying” the outcome of Tuesday’s talks between the United States and Ukraine, and their call for a monthlong cease-fire.He said he…

The European Union is putting tariffs on a range of products from the United States in retaliation to President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, and items that come from Republican-held states rank high on the hit list.The European Union plans to institute the tariffs in two phases: The first wave will take hold on April 1, and will impact goods that already had tariffs applied during Mr. Trump’s first term, such as bourbon, boats and motorcycles. For certain products like whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, those tariffs would be as much as a crushing 50 percent.The second wave is still being…

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has accepted a 30-day ceasefire with Russia after critical peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia. Washington has, in turn, lifted its pause on military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv. After eight hours of negotiations in the port city of Jeddah, the terms of peace were jointly signed and will be presented to Russia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who represented Washington in Saudi Arabia, said. The ball is now in Moscow’s court, said Rubio. Here is what we know about the deal that was struck –…

The prospect of deep cuts to Medicaid, the United States government programme to provide healthcare to low-income people, has become a flashpoint in Congress as leaders of both parties accuse their counterparts of lying. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives, said on February 27 that a Republican budget measure would “set in motion the largest cut to Medicaid in American history” and Republicans are hiding the consequences. “The Republicans are lying to the American people about Medicaid,” Jeffries said. “I can’t say it any other way. Republicans are lying. Prove me wrong.” Republicans said Democrats were…

A court in Georgia has handed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili a new nine-year prison sentence after finding him guilty of embezzlement. The ruling, announced on Wednesday, extends the detention of the pro-Western former leader, who was already serving a six-year sentence. Opposition forces claim it illustrates that the government, which is accused of abusing democracy and pulling Georgia back towards Russia, is scared of Saakashvili. Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili declared Saakashvili, a controversial reformist who was Georgian president from 2004 to 2012, guilty of misappropriating nine million Georgian laris ($3.2m) in state funds from 2009 to 2012. He is accused of misspending…

(The Center Square) – Attorneys for the builders of a 1,200 mile pipeline in North Dakota on Tuesday questioned the validity of the testimony of a witness called to the stand by Greenpeace in defense of the environmental protest group’s contributions to delays in finishing the pipeline project on time.Energy Transfer built the Dakota Access Pipeline about eight years ago amid sometimes violent environmental protests that included vandalism. Energy Transfer filed a lawsuit against Greenpeace in 2019, claiming it funded the protests and coordinated attacks on the pipeline during its construction, delaying the project’s completion. Greenpeace maintains that while it supported…

Unable to calm student-led protests that just kept growing, Serbia’s strongman leader, Aleksandar Vucic, reached for some tried-and-tested scapegoats, unleashing his media attack dogs on foreign-financed groups that have nettled him for years.But what started as a familiar ritual of intimidation against groups that document issues like corruption, human rights abuses and electoral fraud — and which Mr. Vucic blames for the protests — has recently taken an unusual and menacing turn.Encouraged by the Trump administration’s assault on the American agency U.S.A.I.D., Serbian authorities on Feb. 25 sent dozens of police officers, many of them armed, to raid the offices…

Unable to calm student-led protests that just kept growing, Serbia’s strongman leader, Aleksandar Vucic, reached for some tried-and-tested scapegoats, unleashing his media attack dogs on foreign-financed groups that have nettled him for years.But what started as a familiar ritual of intimidation against groups that document issues like corruption, human rights abuses and electoral fraud — and which Mr. Vucic blames for the protests — has recently taken an unusual and menacing turn.Encouraged by the Trump administration’s assault on the American agency U.S.A.I.D., Serbian authorities on Feb. 25 sent dozens of police officers, many of them armed, to raid the offices…

Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg and contributing Opinion writer Frank Bruni join Patrick Healy, the deputy Opinion editor, at the halfway mark of President Trump’s first 100 days in office, to reflect on how he is changing the country.Below is an edited, condensed transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.Patrick Healy: This is the First 100 Days, a weekly series examining President…

With Greenland thrust into the spotlight by President Trump’s insistence that the United States will “get” the remote island at the top of the world, its parliamentary election on Tuesday took on unusual importance — not just for the outside world, but for Greenlanders.Voter turnout was at its highest in 12 years, so much so that polling stations on the sparsely populated island, which is partly controlled by Denmark, were kept open late to accommodate long lines. Nearly 74 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot, according to official figures.With all votes counted early Wednesday morning, the winner was Demokraatit,…