In a TIME interview, Trump stated Crimea will “stay with Russia,” igniting debate amid Ukraine-Russia tensions. He said that Ukraine won’t join NATO, while urging peace talks.
The recent interview with US President Donald Trump by TIME magazine has caused debate regarding the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Trump stated that “Crimea will stay with Russia” as part of potential peace negotiations with Ukraine, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky understands this reality.
The Crimean peninsula has been a point of contention between Ukraine and Russia for years, with Russia annexing the region in 2014. Trump’s comments suggest that he believes Crimea’s fate is already sealed, with Russia maintaining control over the region. He pointed out that the people of Crimea largely speak Russian, implying that this demographic factor contributes to the region’s ties with Russia. However, he also took a swipe at his predecessor, Barack Obama, saying, “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.”
Zelensky has consistently maintained that recognising occupied territory as Russian is a red line for Ukraine, and Trump’s comments may be seen as an attempt to push Ukraine towards negotiations.
In contrast to his comments on Crimea, Trump has also criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin for continuing to assault Ukraine. In a statement, Trump said, “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”
In response, Zelensky pointed out on Thursday that Ukraine had accepted a US ceasefire proposal 44 days ago as the first step toward peace talks, but Russian attacks have continued.
Trump also said that Ukraine will never join NATO and added, “From day one, that’s what caused the war to start—talks of NATO membership”.
Speaking to reporters Friday as he left the White House to attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, Trump said there is no deadline for the conclusion of peace talks.
“I just want to do it as fast as possible,” Trump said. Negotiators are “pretty close” to a deal, he said.
Pope Francis’ funeral will be held on April 26 in St. Peter’s Square.
He passed away on April 21 due to complications from a stroke.
Over 130 foreign delegations, including 50 heads of state, will attend.
Pope Francis’ Funeral: Pope Francis, 88, the head of the worldwide Catholic Church, will be laid to rest on Saturday (Apr 26) in Rome. The Argentine pontiff died from a stroke on Monday (Apr 21), less than a month after returning home from five weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia. Here are all the details associated with his funeral:
Where and when will the funeral take place?
Pope Francis’ funeral will take place at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Saturday in the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Thousands of followers from across the globe are expected to attend the ceremony.
His body will be placed in a cypress-wood coffin before the funeral and then placed in two other coffins that fit inside one another, each made of different types of wood, at his burial site.
Who will attend Pope Francis’ funeral?
The Vatican on Thursday (Apr 24) announced that at least 130 foreign delegations had confirmed their attendance for the event, including 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs.
Asia
India: President Droupadi Murmu
Philippines: President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Liza Marcos
Americas
USA: President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump
Argentina: President Javier Milei
Brazil: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife Janja
United Nations: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
Europe
France: President Emmanuel Macron
Germany: President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Hungary: President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban
Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska
United Kingdom: Prince William representing head of state King Charles III and Prime Minister Keir Starmer
After the funeral mass on Saturday, Pope Francis will be buried outside the Vatican in St. Mary Major, a basilica in Rome. He will be the first pope in more than five centuries to be buried there.
Who will replace Pope Francis?
The process of choosing a new pope is long and secretive, for which most of the world’s 252 cardinals are coming to Rome to take part. Of the 252, only 138 under the age of 80 are eligible to vote in the conclave.
After the votes are cast for the preferred candidate by each cardinal, three scrutineers tally them. If no candidate receives the required two-thirds majority, voting continues twice each morning and afternoon. Afterwards, the world watches for the traditional smoke signals – black indicating no decision, white announcing that a new pope has been chosen
The IMF has agreed on a loan program review with Sri Lanka.
This review will make approximately $344 million available for reforms.
Sri Lanka defaulted on $46 billion in foreign debt in April 2022.
Washington:
The International Monetary Fund announced Friday it had reached agreement on a loan program review with Sri Lanka which will make around $344 million available to support the country’s economic reforms.
Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt of $46 billion in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange to finance imports such as food, fuel and medicines.
The last government reached a roughly $3 billion, four-year bailout loan from the IMF, and embarked on a reform process which involved cutting subsidies, and raising taxes to stabilize the economy.
That painful reform program has continued under the new leftist administration of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
“Sri Lanka’s ambitious reform agenda continues to deliver commendable outcomes,” IMF Sri Lanka mission chief Evan Papageorgiou said in a statement following discussions in Washington, confirming the fourth review of the program.
“The post-crisis growth rebound of five percent in 2024 is remarkable,” he continued, commending the country’s “substantial” fiscal reforms and adding that revenues had improved, official reserves had reached $6.5 billion, and the country’s debt restructuring process was “nearly complete.”
Once approved by the IMF’s executive board, the agreement announced Friday will make around $344 million in much-needed funds to support the Sri Lankan economy.
That would bring the total disbursed under the current program to around $1.7 billion, the IMF said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tens of thousands flocked to the Vatican for a last glimpse of Pope Francis.
Around 150,000 people had paid their last respects by midday Friday.
More than 50 heads of state will attend the funeral alongside 200,000 guests.
Vatican City:
Tens of thousands of people flocked to the Vatican Friday for a last glimpse of Pope Francis’s open coffin, as world leaders and other guests began arriving for his funeral.
Around 150,000 people had paid their last respects to the Argentine pontiff by midday Friday, seven hours before the end of three days of lying in state at St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said.
The wooden coffin, in which the pope lies wearing a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes, with a rosary laced around his fingers, will be closed in a private ceremony at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).
More than 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs are expected to attend Saturday’s funeral, alongside around 200,000 mourners.
“We love the pope, we feel blessed to see him a last (time),” Michelle Alcaide, 35, from the Philippines, as she queued to file past the pope’s coffin Friday.
Vast crowds of people packed Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue leading to the Vatican, pilgrims and tourists mingling with Italians enjoying the April 25 public holiday.
“What a great man! He loved everyone, every religion,” said 53-year-old Italian Igho Felici, adding: “I had to be here.”
Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St Peter’s under tight security with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets on standby.
Further checkpoints will be activated on Friday night, police said.
‘Intimate moment’
For a second night in a row, the Vatican kept St Peter’s open past the scheduled hours to accommodate the queues, only closing the doors between 2:30 am and 5:40 am Friday.
“Night is the most intimate moment, the Lord always manifests himself at night,” said Nicoletta Tomassetti, 60, who visited the Basilica in the very early hours of Friday morning.
“It was very emotional. In prayer, I asked the pope for some things and I know he will give them to me,” she told AFP.
The Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital fighting severe pneumonia.
“It was like saying goodbye to a father” who “loved me and will continue to love me as and more than before,” said Filipa Castronovo, 76, an Italian nun, after seeing the coffin on Friday.
Visitors to St Peter’s reported waiting hours to enter. “Whatever happens, we have to get inside,” said Ian Delmonte, 35, also from the Philippines.
Global tributes
The Argentine pontiff, who had long suffered failing health, defied doctors’ orders by making a public appearance on Easter Sunday, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.
It was his last public appearance.
Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed those on the fringes of society in his 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
He used his last speech to rail against those who stir up “contempt… towards the vulnerable, the marginalised, and migrants”.
“It’s impressive to see all these people,” French cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo said of the queueing crowds, describing Francis as “a man of the people.
“It’s a beautiful response, a beautiful embrace of his ministry, of his pontificate,” he added.
The Vatican has said 130 foreign delegations are confirmed for the funeral, including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Britain’s Prince William, many of whom began arriving early on Friday morning.
US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania are expected to arrive on Friday evening.
Selfie ban
On Thursday the Vatican banned people from taking photos inside the basilica, a move that eased the queue. It came after some mourners took selfies with the coffin.
After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will be driven at a walking pace for burial at his favourite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
The hearse will pass down Rome’s Fori Imperiali — where the city’s ancient temples lie — and past the Colosseum, according to officials.
Big screens will be set up along the route on which to watch the ceremony, according to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who estimated the crowds at around 200,000.
Francis was a champion of the underdog, and a group of “poor and needy” will be at Santa Maria Maggiore to welcome the coffin, the Vatican said.
Francis will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus.
People will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning, as all eyes turn to the process of choosing Francis’s successor.
Early May conclave possible
Cardinals from around the world have been returning to Rome for the funeral and the election of a new pope.
They have been meeting every day to agree the next steps, but have yet to announce a date for the conclave.
Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Hollerich, a Jesuit who was a close adviser to Francis, said the conclave would likely begin on May 5 or 6.
This is right after the nine days of mourning declared by the Holy See, which ends on May 4.
Only those under the age of 80 — currently some 135 cardinals — are eligible to vote.
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was number two to Francis, is the favourite, according to British bookmakers William Hill.
They put him ahead of Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila, followed by Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson, and Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
A radio station in Australia used an AI host without notifying listeners.
CADA, owned by ARN, created the AI avatar for a weekday show, Workdays with Thy.
The AI host, “Thy,” had been on air for nearly six months prior to the backlash.
A radio station in Australia is facing backlash for using an AI-generated host for a programme without disclosing it to listeners. CADA, a Sydney-based radio station owned by the Australian Radio Network (ARN), created an AI avatar to present a four-hour weekday show broadcast to Western Sydney and available on the iHeartRadio app.
The show called Workdays with Thy featured a radio jockey named Thy who had been presenting the show for nearly six months since Nvember 2024, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Every weekday from 11am-3pm while you are at work, driving around, doing the commute on public transport or at uni, Thy will be playing you the hottest tracks from around the world,” read the description of the show on the CADA website.
“Curated by our music experts, these are the songs that are charting or on the cusp of blowing up…so if you’re day is looking a bit bleh, let Thy and CADA be the energy and vibe to get your mood lifted,” it added.
However, at no point during the show, nor anywhere on the ARN website, was the use of AI disclosed, leading to backlash from listeners.
It was revealed that the radio station used ElevenLabs – a generative AI audio platform that transforms text into speech, to create Thy. The AI avatar’s likeness and voice were based on a real employee in the ARN finance team.
“We’ve been trialling AI audio tools on CADA, using the voice of Thy, an ARN team member. This is a space being explored by broadcasters globally, and the trial has offered valuable insights,” an ARN spokesperson confirmed the use of AI.
Voicing her criticism, Teresa Lim, the vice president of the Australian Association of Voice Actors, said the incident highlighted the need for necessary legislation around AI.
“Authenticity and truth are so important for broadcast media. The public deserves to know what the source is of what’s being broadcast. We need to have these discussions now before AI becomes so advanced that it’s too difficult to regulate.”
As per The Australian Financial Review, the AI-hosted show had reached at least 72,000 people in last month’s ratings.
The Vatican on Thursday said at least 130 foreign delegations had confirmed their attendance at Pope Francis’s funeral, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs.
Here is a list of VIP guests whose offices have confirmed they will be in Rome on Saturday.
Americas
ARGENTINA: President Javier Milei.
BRAZIL: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife Janja.
HONDURAS: President Xiomara Castro.
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
UNITED STATES: President Donald Trump and his wife Melania.
Europe
AUSTRIA: Chancellor Christian Stocker.
BELGIUM: King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, with Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
BULGARIA: Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov.
CROATIA: President Zoran Milanovic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
CZECH REPUBLIC: Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
DENMARK: Queen Mary.
ESTONIA: President Alar Karis.
EUROPEAN UNION: EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.
FINLAND: President Alexander Stubb.
FRANCE: President Emmanuel Macron.
GERMANY: President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz will not attend.
GREECE: Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
HUNGARY: President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
IRELAND: President Michael Higgins and his wife Sabina, plus Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheal Martin.
KOSOVO: President Vjosa Osmani.
LATVIA: President Edgars Rinkevics.
LITHUANIA: President Gitanas Nauseda.
MOLDOVA: President Maia Sandu.
MONACO: Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene.
THE NETHERLANDS: Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.
NORTH MACEDONIA: President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova.
NORWAY: Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
POLAND: President Andrzej Duda and his wife.
PORTUGAL: President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.
ROMANIA: Interim President Ilie Bolojan.
RUSSIA: Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova.
SLOVAKIA: President Peter Pellegrini.
SLOVENIA: President Natasa Pirc Musar and Prime Minister Robert Golob.
SPAIN: King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.
SWEDEN: King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
UKRAINE: President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska.
UNITED KINGDOM: Prince William representing head of state King Charles III and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Middle East
ISRAEL: Yaron Sideman, Ambassador to the Holy See.
Africa
CAPE VERDE: President Jose Maria Neves.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: President Faustin-Archange Touadera.
Asia
INDIA: President Droupadi Murmu.
PHILIPPINES: President Ferdinand Marcos and first lady Liza Marcos.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan’s defence minister admitted to doing “dirty work” for the US and the West when asked whether Islamabad has a history of funding and backing terror groups.
Khwaja M Asif was speaking to British news network Sky News. During the interview, the minister was asked, “Do you admit, sir, that Pakistan has had a long history of backing and supporting and training and funding these terrorist organizations?” To which the Pakistani minister said, “We have been doing this dirty work for the US for the past three decades, including the West and the United Kingdom.”
However, he was quick to call it a “mistake” and said Pakistan “suffered because of that.” He added that Pakistan’s track record would have been “unimpeachable” had Islamabad not joined the West during the Soviet-Afghan war and the US-led war against the Taliban after 9/11.
The Pakistan minister’s admission of doing “dirty work” by backing terrorists for the US and West comes in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 innocent civilians were shot dead at a picnic spot in Baisaran valley.
Pakistan supported the United States in the Soviet-Afghan war by training and harbouring armed militants to fight the Soviets. The proxy war between the US and the Soviets gave Pakistan an important role because of its porous border with Afghanistan. The war ended with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and a civil war, which saw the Taliban at the helm for almost a decade until the 2001 World Trade Centre attacks shook the world.
Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda was given shelter by the Taliban in Afghanistan. On September 11, 2001, the terror group carried out the biggest attack on American soil, killing 2,996 people. The United States launched a full-scale invasion of Afghanistan, and again, Pakistan was at the centre of operations to back the US-led forces in uprooting the Taliban.
Pakistan, which has backed, funded and trained terrorists on its soil against India, is again accused of supporting the attackers who killed the civilians in Pahalgam. ‘The Resistance Front’ (TRF), an offshoot of one of India’s most-wanted terrorists, Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sources told NDTV that the attack was carried out by a hardened group affiliated with the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror organisation, comprising mostly foreign terrorists, with support from local militants, overground workers from the Valley and under the control of 26/11 attacks mastermind and Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed.
According to sources, the group has been active in Kashmir for a long time. Security agencies believe it has been behind several high-profile attacks across the region, including in Sonamarg, Boota Pathri, and Ganderbal.
In October 2024, four individuals, including two Indian Army personnel, were killed in a terror attack at Boota Pathri. In the same month, Sonamarg witnessed a deadly assault on tunnel construction workers in which six labourers and a doctor were gunned down. Hashim Musa, one of the main accused in the Pahalgam massacre, is believed to be a suspect in this attack.
Archaeologists in Peru said Thursday they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas.
“What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archaeologist David Palomino told AFP.
The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for over 30 years until becoming an archaeological site in the 1990s.
Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000 years BC, contained skin, part of the nails and hair and was wrapped in a shroud made of several layers of fabric and a mantle of macaw feathers.
Macaws are colorful birds that belong to the parrot family.
The woman’s funerary trousseau, which was presented to reporters at the culture ministry, included a toucan’s beak, a stone bowl and a straw basket.
Preliminary analyses indicate that the remains found in December belong to a woman between 20 and 35 years old who was 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, and wearing a headdress that represented her elevated social status.
Palomino told reporters the find showed that while “it was generally thought that rulers were men, or that they had more prominent roles in society” women had “played a very important role in the Caral civilization.”
Caral society developed between 3000 and 1800 BC, around the same time as other great cultures in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.
The city is situated in the fertile Supe valley, around 180 kilometers (113 miles) north of Lima and 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Pacific Ocean.
It was declared a UN World Heritage Site in 2009.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump is constitutionally banned from seeking a third term, but his online store has started selling merchandise with slogans ‘Trump 2028’, signalling that the 78-year-old Republican may run again in the next presidential election in the United States.
The store, run by the Trump family, is selling red ball caps with “Trump 2028” written on the front for $50 (about Rs 4,300). The product description says, “Make a statement with this Made in America Trump 2028 hat.”
Other than this, the store is also selling T-shirts in navy blue and red for $36 (about Rs 3,100) with the slogan “Trump 2028 (Rewrite the Rules)” printed on them.
The sale came shortly after Trump, who returned to power in January and also served as president from 2017 to 2021, said he was “not joking” about the prospect of seeking a third term.
In an interview with NBC News, he said many were encouraging him to run for a third term.
“A lot of people want me to do it. But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration,” Trump said.
The Republican said there were methods you could do it, suggesting that Vice President JD Vance could run for president and then somehow hand over the role to Trump.
He also said there were other ways, too, but refused to elaborate.
The 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Trump also said that he would love to run against former President Barack Obama, who has also served two terms. “That would be a good one, I’d like that.”
Opinion polls have reflected American concerns over Trump’s handling of key issues during the first 100 days of his second term, including living costs and chaotic tariff policies.
China’s government is considering suspending its 125% tariff on some US imports, people familiar with the matter said, as the economic costs of the tit-for-tat trade war weigh heavily on certain industries.
Authorities are considering removing the additional levies for medical equipment and some industrial chemicals like ethane, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
Officials are also discussing waiving the tariff for plane leases, the people said. Like many airlines, Chinese carriers don’t own all of their aircraft and pay leasing fees to third-party companies to use some jets – payments that would have become financially ruinous with the additional tariff.
Market reaction to the possibility of some goods being exempt was swift, with the offshore yuan flipping to a slight gain of 7.2857 per dollar, erasing Friday morning’s losses of as much as 0.1%.
The exemptions China is mulling mirror similar moves on the part of the US, which excluded electronics from its 145% tariff on Chinese imports earlier this month. The pullbacks reflect how deeply intertwined the world’s two biggest economies are, with some key industries grinding to a halt after the trade war escalated.
While the US imports far more from China than the other way around, Beijing’s move spotlights the areas of its economy that remain reliant on US goods. China is the world’s largest plastics manufacturer but some of its factories depend on ethane, which is mainly imported from the US. And its hospitals rely on advanced medical equipment like magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound machines made by US firms like GE Healthcare Technologies Inc.
China’s Ministry of Finance and General Administration of Customs didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The list of exemptions is still in flux and discussions may not progress. Companies in vulnerable sectors have been asked by authorities to submit the customs codes of US goods that they need to be exempt from the new tariffs, other people familiar with the matter said. At least one Chinese airline has been notified that payments to aircraft leasing companies located in free trade zones will not be subject to the new levy, one person said.
Traders have also been circulating purportedly tariff-exempt lists of customs codes that correlate to key chemicals and chip-making components. Bloomberg News could not independently verify the lists.
Beijing is also preparing to waive additional tariffs on at least eight semiconductor-related products, Caijing reported Friday, citing anonymous sources. Those categories don’t include memory chips for the time being, the outlet said, in a potential blow to Micron Technology Inc., the world’s No. 3 memory chipmaker.
Investors are looking for signs that the two countries will engage to lower tariffs, but relations appear to still be at a standstill. On Thursday, Chinese officials publicly demanded the US revoke all unilateral tariffs before agreeing to trade talks. President Donald Trump has tried to get President Xi Jinping on the phone since he returned to office, but the Chinese leader has, so far, resisted, pushing instead for lower-level talks to work out a deal.
On the US front, Trump’s administration has exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from its so-called reciprocal tariffs – a major reprieve for global technology manufacturers including Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., though potentially a temporary one. The exclusions apply to smartphones, laptop computers, hard drives and computer processors and memory chips as well as flat-screen displays.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
