Ukraine calls for talks with Russia next week
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he's calling for a meeting with Russia next week to push forward ceasefire talks.
Ukraine's Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, has already proposed the next meeting with the Russian side for next week, Zelensky said during his daily address on Saturday.
'The dynamics of the negotiations must improve. We need to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire. The Russian side must stop avoiding decisions regarding prisoner exchanges, the return of children, and the cessation of killings,' Zelensky said.
'A meeting at the leadership level is essential to genuinely secure peace. Ukraine is ready for such a meeting,' he added.
Meanwhile, Russian state media outlet TASS reported that a source close to Russia's negotiating team confirmed that they had received Kyiv's proposal for a meeting.
The last round of ceasefire talks in Istanbul ended swiftly in early June, with Russian and Ukrainian delegates meeting for barely over an hour before calling it quits. According to Russian state media, Russia put forward maximalist territorial demands as part of their preconditions for a ceasefire. Ukraine has previously refused to consider any territorial concessions in exchange for peace.
Zelensky's call for talks arrives just after US President Donald Trump offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a 50-day window to achieve a ceasefire before the US implements high tariffs on Russian goods, alongside 'secondary tariffs' on goods from countries that purchase Russian oil.
'We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days,' Trump said during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office earlier this week.
'I use trade for a lot of things,' Trump added. 'But it's great for settling wars.'
Trump has expressed increasing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, even complaining that Putin's assurances about ceasefire progress are 'bullshit.'
Yet Western analysts and Ukrainian officials say that the president's 50-day-window is unlikely to deter Putin from accelerating Russia's summer offensive in the coming weeks. Moreover, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed Trump's threatened tariffs as mere bluster.
'Fifty days – it used to be 24 hours,' Lavrov said. 'It used to be 100 days; we've been through all of this.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
See - Sada Elbalad
an hour ago
- See - Sada Elbalad
Trump Fires BLS Commissioner after Disappointing Jobs Report
Taarek Refaat U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erica MacEntarfer just hours after the release of a report showing a sharp slowdown in job growth during July. In a heated post on his Truth Social platform, Trump launched fresh criticism at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and accused MacEntarfer, appointed under President Joe Biden, of manipulating employment data for political purposes. 'I was informed that our country's job numbers are being produced by a Biden political appointee, Erica MacEntarfer, who rigged the figures before the election to boost Kamala Harris's chances,' Trump wrote. 'We need accurate job numbers, and I have directed my team to fire this political appointee immediately. She will be replaced by someone with greater competence and experience.' NBC News confirmed that MacEntarfer has already been removed from her post. The BLS operates under the U.S. Department of Labor, currently headed by Trump appointee Lori Chavez-DeRemer. The abrupt decision came on the same day the BLS reported that the U.S. economy added just 73,000 nonfarm jobs in July, far below expectations. The agency also sharply revised down employment figures for the previous two months, eliminating a combined 258,000 jobs from earlier estimates. This brought the three-month average job growth to just 35,000, the weakest pace since April 2020. Trump and congressional Republicans have repeatedly criticized the BLS for what they describe as 'large and politically suspicious' revisions to employment data. In his current budget proposal, Trump called for an 8% reduction in the bureau's workforce, a move that raised concerns about the accuracy of its statistics on jobs, prices, and other key economic indicators. The BLS has increasingly relied on estimated data to fill gaps in employment and inflation reports, amid mounting political pressure from the Trump administration. read more CBE: Deposits in Local Currency Hit EGP 5.25 Trillion Morocco Plans to Spend $1 Billion to Mitigate Drought Effect Gov't Approves Final Version of State Ownership Policy Document Egypt's Economy Expected to Grow 5% by the end of 2022/23- Minister Qatar Agrees to Supply Germany with LNG for 15 Years Business Oil Prices Descend amid Anticipation of Additional US Strategic Petroleum Reserves Business Suez Canal Records $704 Million, Historically Highest Monthly Revenue Business Egypt's Stock Exchange Earns EGP 4.9 Billion on Tuesday Business Wheat delivery season commences on April 15 News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters Arts & Culture "Jurassic World Rebirth" Gets Streaming Date News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia Business Egyptian Pound Undervalued by 30%, Says Goldman Sachs Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Arts & Culture South Korean Actress Kang Seo-ha Dies at 31 after Cancer Battle Arts & Culture Lebanese Media: Fayrouz Collapses after Death of Ziad Rahbani Sports Get to Know 2025 WWE Evolution Results
Al-Ahram Weekly
8 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Trump injects new dose of uncertainty in tariffs as he pushes start date back to Aug. 7: AP report - Economy
For weeks, President Donald Trump was promising the world economy would change on Friday with his new tariffs in place. It was an ironclad deadline, administration officials assured the public. But when Trump signed the order Thursday night imposing new tariffs, the start date of the punishing import taxes was pushed back seven days so the tariff schedule could be updated. The change in tariffs on 66 countries, the European Union, Taiwan and the Falkland Islands was potentially welcome news to countries that had not yet reached a deal with the U.S. It also injected a new dose of uncertainty for consumers and businesses still wondering what's going to happen and when. Trump told NBC News in a Thursday night interview the tariffs process was going 'very well, very smooth." But even as the Republican president insisted these new rates would stay in place, he added: 'It doesn't mean that somebody doesn't come along in four weeks and say we can make some kind of a deal.' Trump has promised that his tax hikes on the nearly $3 trillion in goods imported to the United States will usher in newfound wealth, launch a cavalcade of new factory jobs, reduce the budget deficits and, simply, get other countries to treat America with more respect. The vast tariffs risk jeopardizing America's global standing as allies feel forced into unfriendly deals. As taxes on the raw materials used by U.S. factories and basic goods, the tariffs also threaten to create new inflationary pressures and hamper economic growth — concerns the Trump White House has dismissed. Questions swirl around the tariffs despite Trump's eagerness As the clock ticked toward Trump's self-imposed deadline, few things seemed to be settled other than the president's determination to levy the taxes he has talked about for decades. The very legality of the tariffs remains an open question as a U.S. appeals court on Thursday heard arguments on whether Trump had exceeded his authority by declaring an 'emergency' under a 1977 law to charge the tariffs, allowing him to avoid congressional approval. Trump was ebullient as much of the world awaited what he would do. 'Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again,' he said Thursday morning on Truth Social. Others saw a policy carelessly constructed by the U.S. president, one that could impose harms gradually over time that would erode America's power and prosperity. 'The only things we'll know for sure on Friday morning are that growth-sapping U.S. import taxes will be historically high and complex, and that, because these deals are so vague and unfinished, policy uncertainty will remain very elevated,' said Scott Lincicome, a vice president of economics at the Cato Institute. 'The rest is very much TBD.' The new tariffs build off ones announced in the spring Trump initially imposed the Friday deadline after his previous 'Liberation Day' tariffs in April resulted in a stock market panic. His unusually high tariff rates unveiled then led to recession fears, prompting Trump to impose a 90-day negotiating period. When he was unable to create enough trade deals with other countries, he extended the timeline and sent out letters to world leaders that simply listed rates, prompting a slew of hasty agreements. Swiss imports will now be taxed at a higher rate, 39%, than the 31% Trump threatened in April, while Liechtenstein saw its rate slashed from 37% to 15%. Countries not listed in the Thursday night order would be charged a baseline 10% tariff. Trump negotiated trade frameworks over the past few weeks with the EU, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines — allowing the president to claim victories as other nations sought to limit his threat of charging even higher tariff rates. He said on Thursday there were agreements with other countries, but he declined to name them. Asked on Friday if countries were happy with the rates set by Trump, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said: 'A lot of them are.' Thursday began with a palpable sense of tension The EU was awaiting a written agreement on its 15% tariff deal. Switzerland and Norway were among the dozens of countries that did not know what their tariff rate would be, while Trump agreed after a Thursday morning phone call to keep Mexico's tariffs at 25% for a 90-day negotiating period. The president separately on Thursday amended an order to raise Canada's fentanyl-related tariffs to 35%. European leaders face blowback for seeming to cave to Trump, even as they insist that this is merely the start of talks and stress the importance of maintaining America's support of Ukraine's fight against Russia. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has already indicated that his country can no longer rely on the U.S. as an ally, and Trump declined to talk to him on Thursday. India, with its 25% tariff announced Wednesday by Trump, may no longer benefit as much from efforts to pivot manufacturing out of China. While the Trump administration has sought to challenge China's manufacturing dominance, it is separately in extended trade talks with that country, which faces a 30% tariff and is charging a 10% retaliatory rate on the U.S. Major companies came into the week warning that tariffs would begin to squeeze them financially. Ford Motor Co. said it anticipated a net $2 billion hit to earnings this year from tariffs. French skincare company Yon-Ka is warning of job freezes, scaled-back investment and rising prices. It's unclear whether Trump's new tariffs will survive a legal challenge Federal judges sounded skeptical Thursday about Trump's use of a 1977 law to declare the long-standing U.S. trade deficit a national emergency that justifies tariffs on almost every country on Earth. 'You're asking for an unbounded authority,' Judge Todd Hughes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told a Justice Department lawyer representing the administration. The judges didn't immediately rule, and the case is expected to eventually reach the Supreme Court. The Trump White House has pointed to the increase in federal revenues as a sign that the tariffs will reduce the budget deficit, with $127 billion in customs and duties collected so far this year — about $70 billion more than last year. New tariffs threaten to raise inflation rates There are not yet signs that tariffs will lead to more domestic manufacturing jobs, and Friday's employment report showed the U.S. economy now has 37,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than it did in April. On Thursday, one crucial measure of inflation, known as the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, showed that prices have climbed 2.6% over the 12 months that ended in June, a sign that inflation may be accelerating as the tariffs flow through the economy. The prospect of higher inflation from the tariffs has caused the Federal Reserve to hold off on additional cuts to its benchmark rates, a point of frustration for Trump, who on Truth Social, called Fed Chair Jerome Powell a 'TOTAL LOSER.' But ahead of Trump's tariffs, Powell seemed to suggest that the tariffs had put the U.S. economy and much of the world into a state of unknowns. 'There are many uncertainties left to resolve,' Powell told reporters Wednesday. 'So, yes, we are learning more and more. It doesn't feel like we're very close to the end of that process. And that's not for us to judge, but it does — it feels like there's much more to come.' Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Al-Ahram Weekly
8 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Ukraine says 31 killed in Russian strike on Thursday - War in Ukraine
Ukrainian rescue workers on Friday uncovered the body of a two-year-old, as they finished work following a Russian attack the day prior that killed 31 people in all. Kyiv observed a day of mourning after the deadliest attack in the Ukrainian capital this year ripped open a nine-storey residential building, wounding 159 people and claiming the lives of five children. "This despicable attack by Russia shows that additional pressure and sanctions on Moscow are necessary," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, announcing rescue operations had wrapped up. "We appreciate that (US) President (Donald) Trump, European leaders and our other partners clearly see what is happening and condemn Russia," he added. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Friday described the Russian attacks as "depraved" and posted a picture of the bloc's flag at half mast. "More weapons for Ukraine and tougher sanctions on Russia are the fastest way to end the war. Getting more air defenses to Ukraine fast is our priority," she added in a post. Separately, one person was also killed in a Russian attack early Friday on Zaporizhzhia, in southeast Ukraine, the region's military administration said on Telegram. Another was killed in the northeastern Kharkiv region, officials said, while the toll from another strike on Thursday -- this time in Kramatorsk further south -- rose to three. Thursday's attack was among the deadliest the capital has seen since Russia launched its large-scale offensive in February 2022. Trump on Thursday blasted Russia's actions in Ukraine, suggesting that new sanctions against Moscow were coming. "Russia -- I think it's disgusting what they're doing. I think it's disgusting," Trump told journalists. On Monday, the US leader issued a "10 or 12" day ultimatum for Moscow to halt its invasion, now in its fourth year, or face sanctions. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
