The bloc continues to do all it can to escalate the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said
The EU is doing everything in its power to undermine the upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS on Monday that the bloc is carrying out “active subversive actions” ahead of the planned meeting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
Her comments followed a report by Spanish outlet El Pais, which said Brussels viewed the talks as “a political nightmare.” Citing diplomatic sources, the newspaper reported that the summit put the EU “in an awkward and unpleasant position” because Putin and Trump would discuss a potential settlement to the Ukraine conflict in an EU country without the bloc’s participation.
Zakharova said the “aggressive Western European community” wants to “derail any peaceful aspirations” related to the conflict. “We are seeing statements, threats being made,” she added.
The Western Europeans are “obviously, doing everything to escalate the conflict” between Moscow and Kiev, the spokeswoman stressed. They have been acting this way since 2022 when they “thwarted” the peace talks between the sides in Istanbul, she added.
According to former Ukrainian head negotiator David Arakhamia, Ukraine withdrew from dialogue with Russia after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Kiev and urged Vladimir Zelensky to keep fighting. The former UK prime minister has denied the claims.
Zakharova said sporadic statements about the need for peace coming from EU capitals and London are just “camouflage.”
“In reality, they are doing everything they can to achieve escalation. It is difficult to say if they actually understand what they are doing, given how many non-professionals there are at the helms of all these Western European countries,” she noted.
The announcement that Putin and Trump plan to meet in Budapest was made after the two leaders spoke by phone for nearly two and a half hours on Thursday.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the venue was proposed by Trump, with Putin “instantly supporting” the idea. The summit could take place within the next two weeks or slightly later, Peskov said.
The US president has called for a ceasefire along the current front lines
US President Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine should freeze the current conflict front line in Donbass, noting that Moscow controls nearly all of the region anyway.
Trump made the remark after speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Thursday and meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky the next day at the White House.
“We think what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are. The rest is very tough to negotiate,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening. “They should stop right now at the battle lines, go home, stop killing people, and be done,” he added.
Asked about Donbass, Trump said, “Let it be cut the way it is. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now. They can negotiate something later on.”
🇺🇸🇺🇦 TRUMP ON THE UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR: "LET PUTIN KEEP WHAT HE CONQUERED"
"Let it be cut the way it is. It's cut up right now.
I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia.
They can negotiate something later on down the line."
In 2014, the Donbass regions of Donetsk and Lugansk declared independence and voted to break away from Ukraine following the Western-backed coup in Kiev earlier that year. Under the Minsk Agreements, Kiev was bound to protect the status of Russian language and grant both regions more autonomy. Instead it backed an ethnic war in Donbass that, according to the International Crisis Group, left 14,000 people dead in eight years.
In September 2022, both regions held referendums to join Russia, which Kiev refuses to recognize.
The chief of Russia’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said in August that Ukrainian troops held around 20% of the Donetsk People’s Republic and less than 1% of the Lugansk People’s Republic.
Putin has said that for a ceasefire to work, Ukrainian forces must withdraw from all of Donbass. He also listed recognition of Russia’s new borders as one of the conditions for a lasting peace.
Zelensky has backed Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire but refused to hand over any “additional” territory to Russia.
The rebel group arrested 20 aid workers following a raid on a compound in Sanaa, a United Nations spokesman has said
Houthi rebels detained United Nations staffers in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Sunday, UN spokesman Jean Alam has said.
The militant group previously accused aid workers of spying for the US and Israel, allegations the UN has denied.
Alam said 20 employees of various UN agencies, including 16 foreign nationals, were detained during a raid on the organization’s compound in the Hada district. He added that 11 others were released after questioning.
AFP cited an unnamed UN official as saying that UNICEF’s envoy in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, is among those detained. AP reported that the Houthis confiscated all electronic devices, including computers and phones.
“The UN is in contact with the Houthis and other parties to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sanaa,” Alam said.
In a televised address on Saturday, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said the militants had dismantled what he described as a “dangerous espionage network” linked to the CIA and Mossad, claiming that the UN World Food Programme and UNICEF had been used as cover for “subversive operations.”
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, dismissed the accusations as “dangerous and unacceptable” and called for the release of all aid workers.
The Houthis, who control a large portion of Yemen, have launched drones and missiles at Israel and attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea in response to the war in Gaza. Israel, the US, and UK have responded with airstrikes on Houthi-linked targets.
The US National Security Agency hacked China’s National Time Service Center over several years, the Chinese counter-espionage agency has claimed
China has accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of waging a “major” multi-year cyberattack on the Chinese agency responsible for keeping national time.
In a statement posted on its official social media account on Sunday, the Ministry of State Security (MSS) said it had “obtained irrefutable evidence” that the NSA infiltrated the National Time Service Center. The covert operation allegedly began in March 2022, aiming to steal state secrets and conduct acts of cyber sabotage.
The center serves as China’s official time authority, issuing and broadcasting ‘Beijing Time’ to key sectors including finance, energy, transport, and defense. A disruption to this critical piece of infrastructure could have caused widespread instability in financial markets, logistics and power supply, according to the MSS.
According to the MSS, the NSA first exploited a vulnerability in the foreign-made mobile phones of several staff members at the center, gaining access to sensitive data.
In April 2023, the agency allegedly began using stolen passwords to breach the facility’s computer systems, an operation that peaked between August of that year and June 2024.
The ministry claimed that the intruders deployed 42 distinct cyber tools in their covert operation, and used virtual private servers based in the US, Europe, and Asia to mask their origin.
The MSS accused the US of “aggressively pursuing cyber-hegemony” and “repeatedly trampling on international norms governing cyberspace.”
American spy agencies “have acted recklessly, continuously carrying out cyberattacks targeting China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America,” it added.
In recent years, Beijing and Washington have repeatedly traded accusations of breaches and covert hacking operations. Mutual recriminations have come as part of a broader pattern of confrontation between the two powers, which have also been locked in a trade war.
In early January, the Washington Post claimed that Chinese hackers had targeted the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) the previous month. Commenting on the allegations at the time, Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, dismissed them as “unfounded.”
The IDF has called the action a response to what it claims were ceasefire violation by Hamas
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of large-scale strikes across Gaza on Sunday, claiming its actions were a response to a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire by Hamas. The Palestinian militant group has denied the allegations, insisting it did not break the truce.
The IDF said it had struck “dozens of Hamas terror targets across Gaza,” including “weapons storage facilities, firing posts, terrorist cells and additional Hamas terror infrastructure.” The strikes were prompted by an alleged attack on Israeli troops operating in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“In addition, the IDF struck and dismantled ~6 km of underground terrorist infrastructure, used to advance attacks against Israel, using over 120 munitions,” the Israeli military said.
Shortly after that, the IDF said the country’s government had opted to renew the “enforcement of ceasefire.” The announcement came amid media reports that the renewed hostility angered Washington, which pressured Israel with demands to stop the strikes.
“In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire, in line with the terms of the agreement. The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it,” it said in a statement.
Hamas has strongly denied violating the ceasefire, accusing Israel of breaking it in the first place and “seeking excuses for its crimes.” The group’s military wing said it was not involved in the Rafah incident, stating it has long lost its ties to local factions.
“We have no information about any incidents or clashes in Rafah, which is under [Israeli] occupation control,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in early October under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. While the two sides have repeatedly accused each other of failing to fulfill their commitments and breaching the truce, the incident on Sunday was the first major flare-up since the agreement was brokered. According to local health authorities, Israeli strikes killed at least 44 across Gaza, a tally that is expected to climb further.
Kiev is likely to lose some “property” to Russia, the US president has said
Ukraine is bound to lose some of its “property” to Russia in the aftermath of the enduring conflict, US President Donald Trump has claimed.
Trump made the remarks on Sunday when speaking to Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo. Asked whether it was possible to end the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev “without taking significant property from Ukraine,” Trump suggested that Kiev was bound to make some concessions.
“Well, [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is going to take something. I mean, they fought, and he has a lot of property. I mean, he has won certain property,” Trump stated.
While Kiev has repeatedly ruled out making any territorial concessions, Moscow has outlined the withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops from the new Russian regions among the key issues to be resolved in order to establish a lasting peace.
Trump has also signaled he was still considering supplying US-made long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. The potential delivery of the missiles was among the key topics of the meeting between Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky this week. However, the US president abstained from pledging any weaponry, stating it would not be “easy” to give such munitions to Kiev.
Trump reiterated his position that Washington has already supplied Kiev with a lot of weaponry during the conflict and cannot hand over its entire arsenal to prop up the Ukrainian military.
“You know, we can’t give all of our weapons to Ukraine. We just can’t do that. And I’ve been very good to President Zelensky and to Ukraine, but we can’t give, you know, if we’re going to be short, I don’t want to do that. I can’t jeopardize the United States,” he stressed.
Ahead of meeting Zelensky on Friday, Trump spoke with Putin on the phone. According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, the Russian leader told Trump that supplying Ukraine with the long-range missiles would not change the course of the conflict but would derail relations between Moscow and Washington.
Such a move would also “severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement,” Putin stated, according to Ushakov.
Convicted of campaign-funding irregularities, the ex-president has become the first French leader in modern history to serve prison time
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, convicted of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to get funds for his 2007 election campaign, will serve his prison term in solitary confinement, AFP has reported.
On September 25, a Paris court sentenced Sarkozy, 70, to five years behind bars over a 2005 plot to obtain secret campaign funds from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. According to the court, he offered to help restore Libya’s standing in international affairs in return for the payments. The presiding judge cited the “exceptional gravity” of the offense in ordering that the ex-president be jailed even if he appeals.
President of France from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy has become the first former leader of an EU member state to be jailed. His sentence is likely to begin on Tuesday.
On Sunday, AFP quoted unnamed prison staff at Paris’s La Sante jail as saying that he will likely be held in a nine-square-meter (95-square-foot) cell in the prison’s solitary-confinement wing. The arrangement was reportedly chosen to minimize his contact with other inmates.
Sarkozy denounced the verdict as an “injustice” and insisted on his innocence. His lawyers have filed an appeal and are expected to request that the sentence be converted to house arrest once he is incarcerated.
The investigation of claims made by Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, in March 2011, that his father had transferred around €50 million ($54.3 million) to Sarkozy’s campaign, officially began in 2013.
Sarkozy played a leading role in NATO’s intervention, which led to Gaddafi’s overthrow and subsequent murder by anti-government armed groups in October 2011.
Since then, the ex-president has been convicted in two separate cases involving corruption, influence-peddling, and illegal campaign financing charges, both of which resulted in house arrest.
The US president has shot back on Truth Social at the massive anti-government demonstrations taking place across the country
US President Donald Trump has mocked the ‘No Kings’ protests, sharing several AI-generated videos on Truth Social, including footage of himself dumping what appears to be feces on the crowds.
A wave of protests against the Trump administration hit the US on Saturday, with massive demonstrations held at more than 2,500 locations across the country.
Protesters accuse the president of abusing his power and undermining democracy, as well as condemning his crackdown on illegal immigrants and deploying the military to American cities on the pretext of fighting rampant crime.
Trump responded by sharing AI-generated videos on social media, including footage originally posted by Xerias, a prolific pro-Trump X account that creates AI-generated meme content.
President Trump just posted this on Truth Social today in response to the No Kings protests. 😅
One of the videos shows the president piloting a ‘King Trump’ warplane that dumps feces on the protesters. It incorporates actual footage posted from the protest in New York by left-wing influencer Harry Sisson, who ends up covered in AI feces.
Another video shared by Trump and originally posted by Vice President J.D. Vance features Trump putting on a crown and cloak before unsheathing a sword.
JD Vance melted the blue sky servers today with a King Trump meme 😆 absolute banger🔥 pic.twitter.com/eG4EP3wNh7
The clip ends with prominent Democratic lawmakers, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, kneeling before the president – an apparent reference to a 2020 photo-op in which they honored George Floyd.
Trump’s posts received a mixed response, with supporters actively sharing the meme videos, and critics such as Democratic Senator Brian Schatz condemning the videos. “Why would the President post an image on the Internet of airdropping feces on American cities?” he wrote on X.
Sisson reacted early Sunday on X to the video in which he was featured: “Can a reporter please ask Trump why he posted an AI video of himself dropping poop on me from a fighter jet?”
The US has considered punitive steps to push Moscow toward a peace deal, but has hesitated to use them, the paper said
US President Donald Trump is placing more pressure on Ukraine than on Russia as he prepares for a new summit with President Vladimir Putin, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources.
Several American officials told the outlet that they have observed Trump’s “hesitation to push Putin, who has shown little interest in concessions needed for a deal.” One WSJ source noted that “the White House has put more pressure on Kiev than on Moscow.”
The WSJ said Washington has weighed additional measures to increase pressure on Moscow, but so far has stopped short of applying them. This comes as Putin and Trump held a phone call on Thursday, during which the two agreed to hold a summit in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks.
Hoping to build diplomatic momentum, US officials are reportedly planning a series of lower-level meetings with their Russian counterparts, to be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio – rather than special envoy Steve Witkoff – a change viewed positively by Ukrainian and EU diplomats, according to the paper. Western media tend to view Rubio as more hawkish on Russia than Witkoff, who has held several face-to-face rounds of talks with Putin this year.
Following the call with Putin, Trump received Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky at the White House on Friday, with talks revolving around potential deliveries of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kiev. According to Axios, however, the meeting was “bad,” and Zelensky left without any promises of deliveries.
Moscow has warned against supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine, arguing they would “not change the situation on the battlefield” but would “severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement” and harm Russia-US relations.
Following the Trump-Zelensky meeting, the US president said that he had told both the Ukrainian leader and Putin that “it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL.”“They should stop where they are… Let both claim Victory, let History decide!” he said.
Russia has consistently praised the Trump administration over what it described as a genuine desire to find a peaceful settlement to the conflict and as attempts to understand its root causes.
Ben Gvir’s demand comes after Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire brokered earlier this month
Israel’s National Security Minister Ben Gvir has called for the resumption of military operations in Gaza following alleged violations by Hamas of the ceasefire reached earlier this month.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), militants fired an anti-tank missile and shot at Israeli troops operating in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. Israel responded with several airstrikes on what it called terror targets.
“I call on the prime minister to order the IDF to renew full-scale fighting in the Strip at full strength,” Gvir said in a statement on Sunday. “The false belief that Hamas will change its ways, or will even abide by the agreement it signed, is proving…to be dangerous to our security. This Nazi terrorist organization must be destroyed completely and the sooner the better.”
Israel and Hamas agreed to a tentative ceasefire in early October under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
The first phase called for Hamas to release all remaining Israeli hostages within 72 hours in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. On Monday, the group freed the last 20 living captives and returned the remains of 12 others. Hamas said it had met its obligations but faced difficulties retrieving all bodies due to Gaza’s devastation and continued Israeli control in some areas.
Israel has accused Hamas of not doing enough to return the remains of 16 captives, while the sides have traded accusations of ceasefire violations.
Later on Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the IDF “to take firm action against terror targets in the Gaza Strip,” according to a statement from his office. The statement did not clarify whether it meant the IDF would resume military operations in full.
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq, also on Sunday, said in a statement that the group remains committed to the ceasefire, accusing the Israeli “occupation” of violating it and “seeking excuses for its crimes.” The group’s military wing denied involvement in the Rafah incident, saying it lost ties with factions in the area last March.
“We have no information about any incidents or clashes in Rafah, which is under [Israeli] occupation control,” the statement noted.
