US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday he expected Russia to present a Ukraine ceasefire outline within days that will show if it is serious, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of buying time.President Donald Trump spoke separately by telephone on Monday to Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on Friday for their first direct talks on the conflict in three years.Putin has consistently rejected proposals for a 30-day truce put forward by Kyiv and its Western allies.But Rubio said that Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated they would present their own terms “maybe in a number of days, maybe this week hopefully.”The Russians will offer “just broad terms that would allow us to move towards a ceasefire, and that ceasefire would then allow us to enter into detailed negotiations to bring about an end of the conflict,” Rubio said.He said that the presentation will “tell us a lot about their true intentions.””If it’s a term sheet that’s realistic and you can work off of it, that’s one thing. If it makes demands that we know are unrealistic, I think that will be indicative.”Putin after Trump’s call said he was ready to work with Ukraine on a “memorandum” outlining a possible roadmap and different positions on ending the war.And Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday said that Pope Leo XIV was willing “to host upcoming discussions between the parties at the Vatican,” according to her office.- ‘Trying to buy time’ -Rubio insisted to critical lawmakers that Putin “hasn’t gotten a single concession” from Trump. But Russia has also not indicated any new flexibility since Trump took office in January with vows to end the war through dialogue.”It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time in order to continue its war and occupation,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Rubio that Putin’s refusal to go to Istanbul despite the stated willingness of both Zelensky and Trump to meet showed “he believes it’s in Russia’s interest to carry out this war as long as possible.”The European Union formally on Tuesday adopted its 17th round of sanctions on Moscow, targeting 200 vessels of Russia’s so-called shadow maritime fleet.Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and lead economic negotiator with Washington, attacked the move, saying: “Western politicians and the media are making titanic efforts to disrupt the constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States.”Rubio said that Trump for now opposed new sanctions for fear that Russia would no longer come to the table.Moscow appears confident, with its troops advancing on the battlefield and Trump ending Western isolation of the Kremlin.The memorandum mentioned by Putin “buys time for Russia,” Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev said.”The cessation of hostilities is not a condition for it, which means that Russia can continue its offensive,” he added.Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has since destroyed swathes of the country’s east, killed tens of thousands and now controls around one-fifth of its territory.- Trump is no ‘messiah’ -People who spoke to AFP both in Kyiv and Moscow were skeptical about peace prospects and thought the Putin-Trump call had not brought them closer.”I never had any faith in him and now I have none at all,” retired teacher Victoria Kyseliova said in Kyiv, when asked if she was losing confidence in Trump.Vitaliy, a 53-year-old engineer from Kyiv, said Trump was no “messiah” and that his flurry of diplomacy has changed little. Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said Trump’s latest calls had only added to the uncertainty.”This conversation not only failed to clarify the future of the negotiations but further confused the situation,” he said.He said Trump had fallen for Putin’s tactics of trying to use talks “as a cover to continue and intensify the war.”In Moscow, there was defiance and confidence.  “I believe that we don’t need these negotiations. We will win anyway,” said Marina, a 70-year-old former engineer.

Epic Games on Tuesday said its hit game “Fortnite” has returned to Apple’s digital App Store in the United States after being sidelined for years due to a legal battle with the iPhone maker.”Fortnite is BACK on the App Store in the US on iPhones and iPads… and on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the EU!” the game maker proclaimed in a post on X.Last week, “Fortnite” became unavailable on the App Store around the world, apparently as the result of an updated version of the game being rejected by Apple.While Fortnite with its millions of daily players had already been unavailable to iPhone users in the United States, the block on downloads of the cartoonish multiplayer shooter affected the entire globe.While Apple did not reply to a request for comment on Tuesday, it said previously it had asked Epic in Sweden to resubmit its app update without a newly added digital storefront permitted as the result of a lawsuit in the United States.Neither Apple nor Epic disclosed what cleared the way for the Fornite app’s return in the United States.North Carolina-based Epic has battled Apple and Google for years over commissions they charge on transactions at their official stores for digital goods tailored for iOS or Android operating systems.These are historically the way most users install apps onto their devices.Although it has secured wins in US courts and European Union digital regulations, Epic effectively accused Apple of slow-walking the vetting process it enforces before making an app or game available for users to download.Fans in the European Union can usually download the game through the company’s own app store since the Digital Markets Act, which went into effect last year, requires Apple and other US tech giants to open up their platforms to competition.- ‘Junk fees’ -“Fortnite” is a heavyweight of the gaming world, with Epic claiming around 500 million users in 2023.But players have grown used to upsets as the publisher has filed legal cases against both Apple and Google over what it calls “junk fees.”Apple’s commissions for App Store purchases, which can range as high as 30 percent, come “at the expense of consumers and developers,” Epic has argued.Epic has faced off against Apple in US courts since 2021, when “Fortnite” was banned from the App Store over what Apple said was an attempt to get around the iPhone maker’s payment system.A judge found that the App Store was anticompetitive as it forbade developers from offering alternative avenues for payment.But the conflict has endured past the US court order and the EU’s requirement that Apple and Google allow third-party app stores on their operating systems.A US federal judge said earlier this month that Apple was failing to comply with her three-year-old order that emerged from Epic’s case, which requires the iPhone maker to allow other avenues for users to buy content or services.The App Store changes include letting app makers use alternate payment systems free or charge or commission.Epic quickly capitalized on the new court action, submitting Fortnite afresh to be vetted for inclusion in the App Store.Epic had cast the order as an opening of the floodgates to allow other software developers to escape Apple’s fees.In a joint filing on Thursday, Epic and Apple told the judge they have resolved the issues that led Epic to request an order enforcing her decision in the case.No details were provided regarding the resolution.

At Everglades National Park in Florida, severe drought dries up not only the habitat that wildlife depends on, but the tourism industry in the largest wetland in the United States.Tour operator Marshall Jones, who owns seven airboats in the southern region where his family settled five generations ago, says his operation is quite literally grounded.One boat now rests in the dry bed of a canal.”A lot of the species of wildlife rely on water to survive. Right now, there’s very little to no water within the Everglades, except for man-made waterways,” said the 46-year-old owner of Mack’s Fish Camp on the Miami River.Lack of rainfall in the Everglades has a dramatic impact on the local ecosystem, which is home to more than 2,000 animal and plant species. Drought can stunt fish species like black bass and catfish, or force alligators, turtles and snakes to migrate in search of wetter habitats, exposing them to the risk of dying from heat, Jones said.Droughts are frequent toward the end of the dry season, which stretches from October to mid-May — but in recent months there has been less precipitation than normal, said Robert Molleda, head of the US National Weather Service in Miami.Which means conditions now are more extreme.- ‘Bluebird day’ -It is not only the local wildlife that has been affected. Jones has not been able to take clients out on airboat rides for 32 days during his usual peak-tourism period, costing his business about $50,000.”This is going to be a very tough year for us financially,” he said, adding he hasn’t seen such a drought since 2009.According to Steve Davis, chief scientist at the Everglades Foundation, the current weather situation is further exacerbated by man-made harm in the region. His NGO works to protect the wetland, where for centuries water would accumulate north of the Everglades during the rainy season, from mid-May to October, and flow south, mitigating the severity of dry season droughts.But over the last century, authorities diverted the natural course of the water to allow urban and agricultural growth in southern Florida, altering the wetland.”When we drained and compartmentalized the Everglades that made the ecosystem more vulnerable to drought,” David said.To remedy past mistakes the state of Florida began a vast restoration project several years ago, aided by federal funding.The project’s objective is to restore water supply from the north through a system of canals, dams, spillways and water pumps. “Having places to store water and be able to draw from that when we need it … helps to build resilience for the entire ecosystem,” Davis said.But that relief has not come yet for Jones, who is eager for the rainy season to float his boats once more.”We just need rain. Nature will provide it very soon. Today is our first official day of rainy season,” he said.”And it’s a bluebird day, not a single cloud in the sky. But it’s coming, rain is coming.”

“I can’t wait to make 10 more movies,” Kristen Stewart told AFP the morning after making what Rolling Stone called “one hell of a directorial debut” at the Cannes film festival.Nor can film critics judging from the rave reviews of “The Chronology of Water”, her startling take on the American swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch’s visceral memoir of surviving abuse as a child.All the producers who Stewart said passed on her script, saying its subject matter made it “really unattractive” to audiences, must now be crying into their champagne. Variety called it “a stirring drama of abuse and salvation, told with poetic passion”, while Indiewire critic David Ehrlich said “there isn’t a single millisecond of this movie that doesn’t bristle with the raw energy of an artist”.The fact that she has got such notices with what is normally a no-no subject in Hollywood — and with an avant-garde approach to the storytelling — is remarkable.”I definitely don’t consider myself a part of the entertainment industry,” said the “Twilight” saga star, dressed head to toe in Chanel.And those looking for something light and frothy would do better to avoid her unflinching film.Stewart has long been obsessed with the story and with Yuknavitch’s writing, and fought for years to make the movie her way.”I had just never read a book like that that is screaming out to be a movie, that needs to be moving, that needs to be a living thing,” she told AFP.That Yuknavitch was “able to take really ugly things, process them, and put out something that you can live with, something that actually has joy” is awe-inspiring, she added.- ‘Book is a total lifeboat’ -“The reason I really wanted to make the movie is because I thought it was hilarious in such a giddy and excited way, like we were telling secrets. I think the book is a total lifeboat,” said Stewart, who also wrote the screenplay.It certainly saved Yuknavitch and made her a cult writer, with her viral TED Talk “The Beauty of Being a Misfit” inspiring a spin-off book, “The Misfit’s Manifesto”. “Being a woman is a really violent experience,” Stewart told AFP, “even if you don’t have the sort of extreme experience that we depict in the film or that Lidia endured and came out of beautifully”. Stewart insisted there were no autobiographical parallels per se that drew her to the original book.But “I didn’t have to do a bunch of research (for the film). I’m a female body that’s been walking around for 35 years. Look at the world that we live in. “I don’t have to have been abused by my dad to understand what it is like to be taken from, to have my voice stifled, and to not trust myself. It takes a lot of years (for that) to go.”I think that this movie resonates with anyone who is open and bleeding, which is 50 percent of the population.”Stewart — who cast singer Nick Cave’s son Earl as the swimmer’s first husband and Sonic Youth rock band’s Kim Gordon as a dominatrix — told reporters she was never really tempted to play Yuknavitch herself. – ‘We are walking secrets’ -Instead she cast British actor Imogen Poots, who she called “the best actress of our generation. She is so lush, so beautiful and she’s so cracked herself open in this”.”She has this big boob energy in the film — even though she is quite flat-chested — these big blue eyes and this long hair.”She described her movie’s fever-dream energy as “a pink muscle that is throbbing” and that Poots was able to tap into, channelling Yuknavitch’s ferocious but often chaotic battle to rebuild herself and find pleasure and happiness in her life.”Pain and pleasure, they’re so tied, there’s a hairline fracture there,” Stewart told the Cannes Festival’s video channel.Yuknavitch’s book “sort of meditates on what art can do for you after people do things to your body — the violation and the thievery, the gouging out of desire. Which is a very female experience.”She said “it is only the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive”, and that art and writing helped liberate Yuknavitch and find a skin she could live in.Stewart said Yuknavitch discovered that the only way to take desire back was to “bespoke it… and repurpose the things that have been given to you in order for you to own them.””I’m not being dramatic, but as women we are walking secrets,” the actor said.