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Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has not been blocked from visiting the United States, Taipei’s foreign ministry said Tuesday, insisting he has no plans to travel overseas “in the near future”.The remarks came after US President Donald Trump’s administration reportedly denied permission for Lai to transit in New York as part of an official trip to Latin America next month.Lai’s office had never confirmed his travel plans, but Paraguay, Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in South America, said in mid-July that Lai would visit the country in 30 days.Such a visit would likely mean Lai would need to fly through US territory.”There has been no postponement, cancellation, nor any denial of permission for the transit by the US side,” spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei told reporters in Taipei.”Given the ongoing post-disaster recovery efforts in southern Taiwan, the ongoing reciprocal tariff negotiations with the US, and the relevant international situation, the president has no plans for overseas visits in the near future.”In Washington, asked about the report, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told a media briefing that there had been no travel plans presented for Taiwan’s president and therefore “nothing canceled.”She reiterated Washington’s policy that “transits by high-level Taiwan officials, including presidents, are fully consistent with our long-standing policy and practice. This has not changed.”The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, reported Tuesday that the Trump administration had denied permission for a Lai stopover in New York, after Beijing objected.China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and opposes any international exchanges with the democratic island.Asked about the reports on Tuesday, Beijing’s foreign ministry reiterated its opposition to Taiwan’s leaders visiting the United States.”This position is consistent, clear, and firm,” spokesman Guo Jiakun said.The Financial Times said Lai decided not to travel after he was told he couldn’t enter New York.Chinese and US officials held trade talks Tuesday in Stockholm, in a bid to extend a fragile truce in the face of Trump’s global tariff war.While the United States does not recognise Taiwan as a country, Washington remains the island’s most important partner and biggest arms supplier.Commenting on the Financial Times article, the former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the decision “sends a dangerous signal”. “But once again, (Chinese) President Xi has achieved a victory over the values, security and economy of the United States in the Trump Administration blocking the democratically elected president of Taiwan from making a diplomatic trip through New York,” Pelosi wrote on Facebook.”Let us hope President Trump’s denial of this stopover in New York is not indicative of a dangerous change in U.S. policy on Taiwan.”Lai had originally planned stopovers in New York and Dallas as part of the trip to Paraguay and Central American allies Guatemala and Belize next month, Bloomberg News previously reported.They are among Taiwan’s 12 remaining diplomatic allies. 

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he fell out with Jeffrey Epstein because the convicted sex offender had poached staff from his club’s spa, including the woman at the center of an underage sex scandal involving Prince Andrew.The White House has said previously that Trump threw Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club two decades ago “for being a creep” and US media has reported that they became estranged over a Florida real estate deal.Speaking to reporters on Air Force One while flying home from Scotland, Trump gave some of his most expansive public comments yet about his falling out with Epstein, the wealthy and well-connected financier who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.”People were taken out of the (Mar-a-Lago) spa, hired by him, in other words gone,” Trump said. “When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.'”And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.'”Trump also confirmed that one of the Mar-a-Lago spa attendants taken by his longtime friend Epstein was Virginia Giuffre, who brought a civil case against Epstein friend Prince Andrew, accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave, committed suicide at her home in Australia in April.”I think she worked at the spa,” Trump said. “I think that was one of the people. He stole her.”Before taking office in January, Trump promised to release more information about Epstein, who right-wing conspiracy theorists allege trafficked young girls for VIPs.Trump infuriated some of supporters, however, when the FBI and Justice Department announced in early July that they had not discovered any new elements warranting the release of additional information about Epstein.Scrutiny has been intensifying ever since on Trump’s own relationship with Epstein.- ‘Clemency’ -Seeking to tamp down the furor, the Justice Department has sought the release of grand jury transcripts from the investigation into Epstein and interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned accomplice, last week.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who is also Trump’s former personal attorney — met with Maxwell over two days but declined to say what was discussed in the highly unusual meetings between a convicted felon and a top Justice Department official.Maxwell, 63, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein, offered meanwhile to testify before a House of Representatives committee but only if granted immunity.Maxwell’s lawyers, in a letter to the House committee which has subpoenaed her to testify next month, said she would be prepared to do so “if a fair and safe path forward can be established.””If Ms Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing — and eager — to testify openly and honestly, in public,” they said.Without clemency, the former British socialite would only testify if granted immunity.”Ms Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity,” her lawyers said.Maxwell would also need to see potential questions in advance and would not agree to be interviewed at the Florida prison where she is being held, they said.Finally, her lawyers said, any testimony could only come after the Supreme Court decides whether or not to hear Maxwell’s appeal seeking to have her conviction overturned.They said that if the conditions could not be met Maxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Russia said on Tuesday it wanted peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday twice shortened his deadline for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine — now into a fourth year — or face new sanctions, saying hours after the latest deaths the Kremlin had 10 days to act.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of wilfully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia claims as its own territory, killing 16 people and wounding dozens of others.”It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelensky said on social media in response.The Kremlin denied the claim.”The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP.The attacks came hours after Trump said he was cutting the deadline for President Vladimir Putin to halt the war from 50 days to 10-12 days.Hours later, Trump solidified the deadline to 10 days, threatening to impose “tariffs and stuff” and conceding he did not know if the measures would have any effect.Trump told reporters flying with him back from a visit to Scotland that he had not heard from Putin, adding “It’s a shame.”After the first deadline from Trump, Peskov said Moscow had “taken note” and that it remained “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests”.- ‘War crimes’ -Ukraine’s justice ministry said Russian forces hit the prison in Bilenke with four glide bombs. Police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 wounded.Bricks and debris and blown out windows were strewn on the ground, according to images released by the ministry. The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.Rescue workers searched for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility.The source added there were no Russian war prisoners at the centre.Nadiya, a resident of Bilenke, told AFP the attack damaged her house.”At about 10 minutes to six, a neighbour called and said: ‘Come quickly, your roof is gone.’ Is that normal? Not a single window is intact,” the 74-year-old said.The Ukrainian air force said Russia also launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones.One attack targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 22 people. “Putin is rejecting a ceasefire, avoiding a leaders’ meeting, and prolonging the war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.”He will only end his terror if we break the spine of his economy,” he added, calling on Western allies to consolidate around sanctions on Moscow.- Hospital targeted -“Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23 years old,” Zelensky said.Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said.In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said.Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022.The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken two more villages — one in the Donetsk region, and another in Zaporizhzhia region.The prison strike on Tuesday came on the third anniversary of an attack on another detention facility.Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the night-time strike three years ago on the Olenivka detention centre in Russian-occupied Donetsk, Ukrainian territory claimed by Moscow.Ukraine says dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in the attack.burs-jxb/gv

A man who gunned down four people then killed himself in a Manhattan skyscraper may have targeted the American football league because he blamed it for brain injuries he claimed he suffered, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday.Information that the killer carried in a note referring to the degenerative brain disease CTE offered a possible motive for the Monday shootings at offices used by the National Football League, among others.A source confirmed that in a three-page handwritten note found in the gunman’s wallet, he wrote “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Study my brain please. I’m sorry.””Football gave me CTE and it cause me to drink a gallon of antifreeze. You can’t go against the NFL. They’ll squash you.”The suspected shooter, identified as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, went on to ask that his brain be studied for CTE, and alleged that the league “knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits.”Armed with a semi-automatic rifle, the attacker shot a police officer outside the tower on Park Avenue, then opened fire in the lobby before trying to access the NFL’s offices.Tamura had never actually played for the top professional league, Adams said, though he was reportedly a star player in high school in California.The bloodshed sparked a massive police response in the teeming center of the city — not far from where a man with a grievance against UnitedHealthcare gunned down the medical insurance company’s CEO last December.New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a news conference that Tamura had a history of mental health issues.President Donald Trump on Tuesday called the mass shooting a “senseless act of violence” carried out by a “lunatic.”- Deadly journey -New details emerged Tuesday about the gunman’s bloody attack and final journey.Authorities said he had driven across the country from Nevada and stopped outside the skyscraper in a black BMW, carrying a rifle.He killed a police officer immediately, then began “spraying the lobby” with bullets,” Tisch said.A female bystander and a security guard were hit, Adams said, explaining that this prevented anyone pushing a panic button that would have stopped the elevators from working.As the guard “attempted to hide himself behind the counter, he was killed as well, and the suspect then took the elevator upstairs,” Adams said. “If he was able to get to the button, he could have froze the elevator.”One of the victims shot was an NFL employee, who was “seriously injured” but stable in hospital, league commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement to employees.But while his target was determined to be the NFL offices, Tamura “took the wrong elevator,” Adams said, ending up on the 33rd floor, which houses the building’s management. He murdered one person there and then shot himself in the chest.Adams said the fallen police officer was a 36-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh.Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was preparing to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place. “Everyone was confused,” he said.There have been 254 mass shootings in the United States this year including Monday’s in New York, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.

China and the United States agreed Tuesday to hold further talks on extending their tariff truce, but a top US trade official stressed that President Donald Trump would make any “final call.”The world’s top two economies met for a second day of negotiations in Stockholm, with both sides seeking to avert tariffs from returning to sky-high levels that had ground trade between the rivals to an effective standstill.The meeting in a Swedish government building, led on the Chinese side by Vice Premier He Lifeng and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for the Americans, ended without a resolution but with the US side voicing optimism.Neither government has made public any details from the talks, which started on Monday, although US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Trump would have the “final call” on any extension in the truce.”Nothing has been agreed until we speak with President Trump,” added Bessent, calling the tone of the talks “very constructive”.The negotiations are taking place in the wake of a trade deal struck over the weekend that set US tariffs on most European Union imports at 15 percent, but none on American goods going to the EU.The truce between China and the United States has temporarily set fresh US duties on Chinese goods at 30 percent, while Chinese levies on trade in the other direction stand at 10 percent.That accord, reached in Geneva in May, brought down triple-digit tariffs each side had levelled at the other after a trade war sparked by Trump spiralled into a tit-for-tat bilateral escalation.The 90-day truce is meant to end on August 12. But there are indications both delegations want to use the Stockholm talks to push the date back further.The South China Morning Post, citing sources on both sides, reported on Sunday that Washington and Beijing are expected to extend their tariff pause by a further 90 days.Trump said he would be briefed again by Bessent on Wednesday. “We’ll either approve it or not,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from Scotland.- Trump’s threats -Separately, Trump has threatened to hit dozens of other countries with stiffer tariffs from Friday this week unless they reach trade deals with Washington.Among them are Brazil and India, with the South American giant facing a threat of 50 percent tariffs.Asked about Friday’s deadline, Bessent told CNBC: “It’s not the end of the world if these snapback tariffs are on for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, as long as the countries are moving forward and trying to negotiate in good faith.”Trump has already announced deal outlines with five countries — Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines — as well as the one with the 27-nation EU.Beijing says it wants to see “reciprocity” in its trade with the United States. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said dialogue was needed “to reduce misunderstandings”.The previous round of China-US talks was held in London.Analysts said many of the trade deals Trump has been publicising were leaning more on optics than on details.Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, a firm that advises on currency exchange and commodities, said an extension of the 90-day truce between China and the United States could reinforce that view.”That truce could set the stage for a Trump – (President) Xi (Jinping) handshake later this year — another risk-on carrot for markets to chew,” he said.

Boeing reported a smaller loss in the second quarter Tuesday after the company delivered more planes, with its CEO pointing to signs of stabilization in operations.The aviation giant reported a loss of $697 million, compared with a loss of $1.4 billion in the year-ago period. Revenues rose 34.9 percent to $22.7 billion, topping analyst estimates.Boeing delivered the most planes in a second quarter, or in the first half of a year, since 2018, reflecting efforts to improve its quality control operations following a number of safety problems.Boeing reaffirmed plans to seek a production increase this year for the 737 MAX from US regulators.That Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval stands as a key goalpost in Boeing’s turnaround following a January 2024 Alaska Airlines flight that saw a window panel blow out mid-flight.Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg, who joined the company last August, said he was heartened by the progress but that more work is needed.”It’s turning a big ship around,” Ortberg said on a conference call with analysts. “I think we’re turning it. I don’t think it’s turned. We still have a lot of work to do.”Executives expressed confidence that Boeing would be cashflow positive by the fourth quarter. But Chief Financial Officer Brian West said Boeing’s third quarter cash position could be negatively impacted by a one-time $700 million payment connected to a Department of Justice agreement.The funds are associated with a settlement of a US criminal case related to two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019.Boeing has previously said it expected to be cashflow positive in the second half of 2025.The aviation giant has registered annual losses the last six years, with the setbacks from the MAX crashes followed by the pandemic downturn.West told analysts a cash burn of $3 billion was a reasonable estimate for all of 2025.- Certification challenge -Boeing increased production on the 737 MAX to 38 per month during the quarter. Ortberg declined to estimate when the FAA would approve a rate increase to 42 per month, but said the company would be working on the project in the third quarter.Production of the company’s other top-selling jet, the 787 Dreamliner, now stands at seven per month, up from five earlier in the year.Boeing has resumed deliveries to Chinese carriers after they were halted at the height of the trade conflict earlier this year between Washington and Beijing. The two countries have suspended their most onerous tariffs and are now working on a deal, with talks ongoing in Stockholm on Tuesday.In a letter to employees, Ortberg said the certification of the 737-7 and 737-10 models is taking longer than previously expected due to challenges with anti-ice mechanisms on the plane. “Progress on this solution has taken longer than we expected and we now anticipate that certification for the airplanes will take place next year,” Ortberg said in the letter.On the conference call, Ortberg said the issue was in a “very delicate area” around the engines. Reworking the design has taken longer than expected, he said.Ortberg sought to reassure analysts after workers with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in St. Louis voted down a contract earlier this week, setting the stage for a potential strike early next month.Ortberg noted that the St. Louis operation, part of Boeing’s defense business, involves 3,200 employees, compared with roughly 30,000 machinists in the Seattle area who went on strike last fall.”I wouldn’t worry too much about the implications of the strike,” Ortberg said. “We’ll manage our way through that.”Shares of Boeing fell 3.7 percent in afternoon trading.

Procter & Gamble executives projected a $1 billion hit from US tariffs over the next year on Tuesday as the consumer products giant said it would institute limited price hikes in the United States.The maker of Tide laundry detergent and Pampers diapers reported an uptick in quarterly profits following slightly higher sales, even as executives described more reticent consumer behavior compared with earlier in 2025.”The market growth in the US and Europe is slowing versus what we saw at the beginning of the year,” said Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten, describing shoppers as “more selective” and driven by value.P&G reported profits of $3.6 billion in the quarter ending June 30, up 15 percent from the year-ago level. Revenues rose two percent to $20.9 billion.Schulten, in a conference call with analysts, said about $200 million of the estimated US tariff hit is due to products imported from China, with another $200 million from Canada. The remaining $600 million come from the rest of the world.P&G executives acknowledged that these figures could be lowered if US President Donald Trump strikes deals that lead to decreased levies from those built into estimates.But P&G executives said they don’t have enough details about the just-announced deal between the United States and Europe to update the forecast. They also pointed to the uncertainty of whether Trump administration investigations into the trading practics of other countries will result in additional tariffs.P&G plans mid-single-digit price hikes on about one-quarter of its US products, translating into about two to 2.5 percent inflation across its portfolio, Schulten said.Schulten said the move is consistent with P&G’s long-term strategy, which includes raising prices on premium items that offer better performance, such as premium detergents or electric toothbrushes.”We believe the price adjustments are adequate,” Schulten said. “They are moderate and they are combined with innovation to improve the overall value for the consumer.”P&G announced on Monday night that Jon Moeller would step down as CEO and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Shailesh Jejurikar on January 1, 2026. Jejurikar joined the company in 1989 and was promoted to the leadership team in 2014.Moeller will transition to become P&G’s executive chairman.P&G shares were flat around midday.

New York officials say the gunman who stormed a Manhattan skyscraper and killed four people believed he was suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neuro-degenerative disease that has affected hundreds of American football players.The man may have been targeting the National Football League (NFL) headquarters located inside the building.Here is key background about the brain condition and its link to contact sports:- What is CTE? -CTE, which cannot be tested for in living individuals, is a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head trauma.It has been linked to an array of behavioral symptoms including aggression, impulsivity, depression, anxiety, paranoia and suicidal tendencies, as well as progressive cognitive symptoms such as memory loss.Awareness of the condition rose through the groundbreaking work of Dr Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-American forensic pathologist, who discovered CTE in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster in 2002.Webster died at 50 after years of erratic behavior and physical decline.Omalu’s research was initially dismissed and discredited by the NFL, but the league eventually acknowledged a link between concussions sustained in football and CTE in 2009.The 2015 film “Concussion,” starring Will Smith as Omalu, brought wider popular awareness to the issue.A year later, the NFL announced a $1 billion legal settlement aimed at providing financial assistance to players suffering from dementia and other neurological conditions linked to concussions.- Violent deaths -CTE has been cited in a number of violent deaths involving former NFL players.In 2011, former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, 50, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Before taking his life, Duerson sent a text message to family members requesting that his brain be sent for analysis at the Boston University School of Medicine, which has led research into CTE.Tests by researchers at the university later confirmed Duerson had been suffering CTE linked to concussions sustained during his career.There have been numerous similar incidents. In 2021, former NFL player Phillip Adams, 32, shot dead six people before killing himself. A post-mortem examination of Adams’s brain found that he had been suffering from CTE, citing “unusually severe” damage to his brain.A coroner said Adams, who began playing gridiron in school, had complained of “excruciating pain” as well as memory issues and difficulty sleeping.Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was also found to have CTE after committing suicide in prison, where he was serving a life sentence for murder.Several other players have also been found to have had CTE after taking their own lives.New York Mayor Eric Adams said the 27-year-old Manhattan shooter carried a note referencing CTE and appeared to have blamed the NFL for his condition.The gunman never played in the NFL but was reportedly a star player at high-school-level.- Estimated impact -Because no test exists for CTE in living people, studies have been limited to examining the brains of players after their deaths.A 2023 study by the Boston University CTE Center said that of 376 brains of former NFL players, 345 of them were found to have CTE.While that sample is potentially skewed — the center is often asked to analyze brains from family members of players who have shown symptoms of CTE — the findings suggest a high incidence of the condition among NFL athletes.A 2024 survey of nearly 2,000 former NFL players, conducted by a team of researchers from the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, showed that one-third believed they had CTE, citing health issues such as cognitive problems, depression, headaches, and chronic pain.

President Donald Trump’s administration will on Tuesday move to reverse a foundational scientific determination that underpins the US government’s ability to curb climate change, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin announced.Appearing on the right-wing “Ruthless Podcast,” Zeldin said: “Later today, we’re going to be making a big announcement in Indiana” about the so-called Endangerment Finding of 2009, which concluded that greenhouse trapping gases from motor vehicles were a threat to public health and welfare.Zeldin accused the Environmental Protection Agency under former president Barack Obama of taking “mental leaps,” when developing the finding based on overwhelming scientific consensus and peer-reviewed research.Agreeing with a podcast host who called the finding a “hub to the spoke of the left’s environment agenda,” Zeldin said: “This has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.””Conservatives love the environment, want to be good stewards of the environment,” he continued. But “there are people who then, in the name of climate change, are willing to bankrupt the country in the name of environmental justice.”The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.The Endangerment Finding granted the EPA power to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act and served as the legal backbone for a range of climate rules, extending beyond vehicles to power plant standards to methane limits on oil and gas operations.According to a recent analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council, if it were a country, the US transportation sector would rank as the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally, while the power sector would be fifth.Dan Becker of the Center for Biological Diversity told AFP the Endangerment Finding has survived multiple legal challenges by industry over the years. “But this time, it’s the government itself mounting the attack,” he said.Environmental groups and states are expected to sue quickly. The legal battle could ultimately reach the Supreme Court, which would have to overturn its own 2007 ruling that paved the way for the Endangerment Finding.”Hopefully they will recognize that this is science and not politics — that there was a good reason for that precedent and no good reason to revoke it,” said Becker. “But this is a very political court.”Since returning to office, Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement on global warming and launched a sweeping campaign to expand fossil fuel development, including new moves this week to open ecologically sensitive areas of Alaska to drilling.The announcement comes as the planet swelters under historic levels of warming. Tens of millions of Americans are baking under a brutal heat dome gripping the Southeast, while climate-fueled floods killed more than 100 people in Texas earlier this month.

Russia said on Tuesday that it wanted peace in Ukraine, hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes came just hours after US President Donald Trump shortened his deadline for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine — now into a fourth year — or face new sanctions.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of willfully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region — that Russia claims as its own — killing 16 people and wounding dozens others.”It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelensky said on social media in response.The Kremlin denied the claim.”The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP.The attacks came hours after Trump said he was cutting the deadline for President Vladimir Putin to halt the Ukraine war from 50 days to 10-12 days.”I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it’s going to end he kills people,” Trump said Monday on a visit to Scotland.”I’m not so interested in talking (to him) anymore,” he added.Peskov said Moscow had “taken note” of Trump’s new deadline and that it remained “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests.”- ‘War crimes’ -Ukraine’s justice ministry said Russian forces hit the prison in Bilenke with four glide bombs. Police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 wounded.Bricks and debris and blown out windows were strewn on the ground, according to images released by the ministry. The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.Rescue workers searched for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility.The source added there were no Russian war prisoners at the centre.Nadiya, a resident of Bilenke, told AFP the attack damaged her house.”At about ten minutes to six, a neighbour called and said: ‘Come quickly, your roof is gone.’ Is that normal? Not a single window is intact,” the 74-year-old said.The Ukrainian air force said that Russia also launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones.One attack targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 22 people. “Putin is rejecting a ceasefire, avoiding a leaders’ meeting, and prolonging the war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.”He will only end his terror if we break the spine of his economy,” he added, calling on Western allies to consolidate around sanctions on Moscow.- Hospital targeted -“Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old,” Zelensky said.Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said.In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said.Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022.The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken two more villages — one in the Donetsk region, and another in Zaporizhzhia region.The prison strike on Tuesday came on the third anniversary of an attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers.Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the night-time strike three years ago on the Olenivka detention centre in Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia.Ukraine says dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in the attack.