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Brazil, which chairs the 11-nation BRICS grouping that also includes Russia and China, called for closer cooperation Monday as the world deals with conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and trade wars under US President Donald Trump. Foreign ministers of the bloc met in Rio de Janeiro as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a three-day truce with Ukraine, whose President Volodymyr Zelensky described the move as “a new attempt at manipulation.””We advocate diplomacy instead of confrontation, and cooperation instead of unilateralism,” Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told the BRICS envoys in Rio.”The conflict in Ukraine continues to have a severe humanitarian impact, highlighting the urgent need for a diplomatic solution,” he added.Ministers from the bloc — which also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates — met to hone their agenda ahead of a leaders’ summit on July 6 and 7.The group has traditionally been cautious in its comments about the Ukraine war, issuing calls for peace while steering clear of condemning Russia’s invasion.Russia is a founding BRICS member and its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, attended the Rio gathering.The meeting came at the start of what the United States has called a “critical week” for talks on ending the Ukraine war.Trump appeared to turn against Putin at the weekend after a meeting with Zelensky at Pope Francis’s funeral, saying he felt the Russian leader was “just tapping me along.”At the same time, the US president has been piling pressure on Kyiv to give up hopes of reclaiming Russian-annexed Crimea.- ‘Complete withdrawal’ from Gaza -Vieira on Monday also called for a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.”The resumption of Israeli bombings and the continuous obstruction of humanitarian aid are unacceptable,” he said.The ministers are expected to issue a final joint statement Tuesday in which they will call for respect for multilateralism and international market rules.Their meeting came at a critical moment for the world economy after the International Monetary Fund slashed growth forecasts over the impact of Trump’s sweeping tariffs.Since returning to the White House in January, the US leader has hit dozens of countries with a blanket 10 percent tariff, but China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products.Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.Senior Chinese economic planner Zhao Chenxin said in Beijing Monday his country was on the “right side of history” in the face of what he called Washington’s “unilateralism and bullying.”- BRICS currency ‘premature’ -BRICS has expanded significantly since its 2009 inception as a group of four powers — Brazil, Russia, India and China — seeking an alternative platform to Western-led international organizations such as the G7.It now makes up nearly half of the world’s population, 39 percent of global GDP and weighs in on issues from Ukraine to Gaza to global trade.A BRICS challenge to the hegemony of the dollar was expected to feature high on the agenda being prepared for July.At a summit last year, BRICS members discussed boosting non-dollar transactions, eliciting a swift rebuke from Trump who threatened them with 100 percent tariffs if they undercut the US currency.Speaking to Brazil’s O Globo newspaper ahead of Monday’s meeting, Russia’s Lavrov said BRICS nations planned to “increase the share of national currencies in transactions” between member states, but said talk of transitioning towards a unified BRICS currency was “premature.”Vieira, whose country has so far been spared the worst of Trump’s trade ire, also denied any plans to create a new currency.Climate change is also expected to feature prominently in the ministers’ final statement.Brazil is the host of this year’s UN COP30 climate conference, which will take place in November in the Amazon city of Belem.

Amazon on Monday launched its first batch of Project Kuiper internet satellites, marking the start of its push to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink.The mission, called Kuiper Atlas 1, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:00 pm local time (2300 GMT), aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket that will carry 27 satellites into orbit.A previous attempt was scrubbed earlier this month due to bad weather.Project Kuiper, a subsidiary of the online retail giant founded by Jeff Bezos, is playing catch-up with Starlink — SpaceX’s sprawling network of internet satellites that has reshaped the sector and handed Musk significant geopolitical clout.The $10 billion initiative plans to deploy 3,200 satellites into low Earth orbit — the region of space up to 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) above the planet — with hopes of going live later this year.Pricing has not yet been revealed, but Amazon has pledged it will align with its reputation as a low-cost retailer.”Atlas V is on its way to orbit to take those 27 Kuiper satellites, put them on their way, and really start this new era in internet connectivity,” said ULA’s Caleb Weiss.With Monday’s launch, Amazon formally enters a crowded and fast-growing field that includes not just Starlink but other emerging players in the satellite internet race.SpaceX launched the first batch of Starlink satellites in 2019 and now boasts more than 6,750 operational units, serving over five million customers worldwide — by far the sector’s dominant force.Starlink has also provided crucial internet access in disaster and war zones, including Morocco after its devastating 2023 earthquake and on the frontlines in Ukraine’s war against Russia.Amazon plans to accelerate launches in the coming months and years, with more than 80 flights booked through United Launch Alliance (a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture), France’s Arianespace, Bezos’s own Blue Origin, and even Musk’s SpaceX.Its satellites will gradually join the swelling ranks of low Earth orbit, alongside Starlink, Europe’s OneWeb, and China’s Guowang constellation.The increasing crowding of this orbital neighborhood has sparked concerns about congestion, potential collisions, and disruptions to astronomical observations.The expanding role of private companies in space has also raised thorny political questions, especially as Musk’s influence stretches beyond business into politics and diplomacy.Musk has sent mixed signals on Starlink’s future role in Ukraine, where it remains vital to Kyiv’s war effort — a conflict that Musk ally US President Donald Trump has vowed to bring to an end.

Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to crack down on “sanctuary cities” that defy his hardline immigration policies, as the US president closes in on his first 100 days back in office. The Republican has claimed major progress in honoring his election campaign promises to stem illegal border crossings from Mexico, which soared to all-time highs under his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. The order directs officials to publish within 30 days a list of states and local authorities that “obstruct the enforcement of Federal immigration laws,” saying those named risk losing access to certain government funding. Trump will this week be hailing his achievements since returning to the White House, claiming successes on the economy, foreign policy and government efficiency, as well as on migration.But his popularity has plunged since January, with more than 40 percent of Americans saying they “disapprove strongly” of him, according to a Washington Post-ABC opinion poll.Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Monday noted a 95 percent drop in encounters of undocumented migrants at the Mexico border — from 140,000 to 7,000 — in the 12 months from March 2024, when Biden was still in office.”America’s borders are now secure because of President Trump,” she said. “He has restored the rule of law, enforced our immigration laws and defended America’s sovereignty.”Trump’s election campaign rhetoric about taking on the alleged hordes of rapists and murderers resonated with American voters concerned about illegal immigration.- Butted heads -Monday’s executive order targets “sanctuary cities” that typically prohibit local officials from telling federal agents about undocumented immigrants if they are at risk of deportation.The mayors of four such cities — Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York — were questioned over their immigration policies during a tense hearing at Congress in March.Courts have upheld the legality of sanctuary laws, and a US judge ruled last week that Trump’s administration cannot withhold federal funds from authorities offering limited protections to undocumented migrants.In a sign of Trump’s focus on immigration, placards lined the White House lawn Monday displaying the mugshots of immigrants.The word “arrested” was printed in capital letters above each photo and, below, the crime of which they were accused — from “first-degree murder” and “sexual abuse of a child” to “distribution of fentanyl.”An accompanying White House press release included a list of 100 individuals that it said were the “worst of the worst criminal illegal immigrants” arrested since Trump took office.Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives released a bill giving Trump powers to levy a host of onerous immigration charges — including a minimum $1,000 fee for asylum applications.Trump has also sent troops to the Mexican border and designated Latin American gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as terrorist groups.But he has butted heads with judges, rights groups and Democrats who say he has ignored constitutional rights in rushing to deport migrants, sometimes without the right to a hearing.Tom Homan, Trump’s point man on border security, told reporters Monday that “we have the most secure border in the history of this nation.”He was asked about deportation rates, which have lagged behind Biden’s numbers, despite Trump’s promised campaign of the largest mass removal campaign in US history.The government has not been releasing comprehensive data, but the Migration Policy Institute said it appeared on track to remove half a million people this year — fewer than the 685,000 deportations recorded in fiscal year 2024 under Biden. Homan argued that comparisons were bogus, since Biden’s deportation numbers included people removed at the border, and most of those people were now being stopped before getting in.

Mexico has agreed to immediately provide water to the United States to reduce shortfalls under a decades-old treaty at the center of a diplomatic spat, the two countries said Monday.The pledge came after US President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs unless Mexico met its commitments, accusing the neighboring nation of “stealing” water from farmers in the southern state of Texas.Trump accused Mexico of violating a 1944 pact under which the United States shares water from the Colorado River in exchange for flows from the Rio Grande, which forms part of the border between the two countries.Mexico agreed with the United States to immediately send water from the Rio Grande and make further transfers during the upcoming rainy season, according to its foreign ministry.It underscored Mexico’s “firm desire to continue fulfilling its commitments under the 1944 treaty, which has been of great benefit to the development of the country’s northern border.”The US State Department welcomed the agreement, which it said would “help American farmers, ranchers, and municipalities in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley get much-needed water and reduce shortfalls in deliveries” under the treaty.It thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for her “personal involvement” in facilitating a resolution to the dispute.”The United States and Mexico also committed to develop a long-term plan to reliably meet treaty requirements while addressing outstanding water debts,” it added. The current treaty cycle expires in October and Mexico owed the United States more than 1.55 billion cubic meters, according to the two countries’ boundary and water commission.Washington said on March 20 that it had rejected a request by Mexico for special delivery of water for the first time due to the shortfalls.The row came against a backdrop of increased tensions between the two countries due to Trump’s global trade war and demands for increased action from Mexico against undocumented migration and drug trafficking.The Colorado River has seen its water levels shrink due to drought and heavy agricultural consumption in the southwestern United States.US farmers and lawmakers complain that their southern neighbor has waited until the end of each cycle and has been coming up short in the latest period.The Mexican government says that the Rio Grande basin has suffered from two decades of drought that reached extreme levels in 2023.In 2020, farmers in the northern state of Chihuahua seized a dam to prevent the government from supplying water from a reservoir to the United States, leading to clashes between protesters and the National Guard that left one person dead.

The foreign ministers of Brazil, China, Russia and other BRICS members began two days of talks in Rio de Janeiro Monday aimed at forging a united front to US President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies.The meeting comes at a critical moment for the world economy after the International Monetary Fund slashed growth forecasts over the impact of the US leader’s sweeping new tariffs.Top diplomats from the 11-member bloc — which includes Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates — met to hone their agenda ahead of a July leaders summit.Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira stressed the importance of dialogue at a time of “humanitarian crises, armed conflicts, political instability and the erosion of multilateralism.”BRICS’s “role as a group is more important than ever,” he said.Trump, since returning to the White House in January, has hit dozens of countries with a blanket 10 percent tariff, but China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products.Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.Senior Chinese economic planner Zhao Chenxin said Monday in Beijing that the country was on the “right side of history” in the face of what he called Washington’s “unilateralism and bullying.”BRICS has expanded significantly since its 2009 inception as a group of four powers — Brazil, Russia, India and China — seeking an alternative platform to Western-led international organizations such as the G7.It now makes up nearly half of the world’s population, 39 percent of global GDP and weighs in on issues from Ukraine to Gaza to global trade.Vieira opened the talks with a call for a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza, terming Israel’s more than 50-day aid blockade of the territory “unacceptable.”The group has had generally less to say about the war in Ukraine, issuing calls for peace while steering clear of condemning Russia’s invasion.And Vieira on Monday called for a “diplomatic solution” which respects the “principles and objectives” of the United Nations charter.- Russian ceasefire -The meeting comes at the start of what the United States has called a “critical week” for talks on ending the Ukraine war.Trump appeared to turn against Putin at the weekend after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Pope Francis’s funeral, saying he felt the Russian leader was “just tapping me along.”Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by announcing a three-day ceasefire from May 8-10.The White House, however, suggested the pause was not sufficient, saying Trump had “made it clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire first.”At the same time the US president has been piling pressure on Kyiv to give up hopes of reclaiming Russian-annexed Crimea.A BRICS challenge to the hegemony of the dollar is expected to feature high on the agenda.At a summit last year, BRICS members discussed boosting non-dollar transactions, eliciting a swift rebuke from Trump who threatened them with 100 percent tariffs if they undercut the US currency.Speaking to Brazil’s O Globo newspaper ahead of the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said BRICS nations planned to “increase the share of national currencies in transactions” between member states, but said talk of transitioning towards a unified BRICS currency was “premature.”Vieira, whose country has so far been spared the worst of Trump’s trade ire — Brazilian imports to the US are subject to 10 percent tariffs, a fraction of those imposed on China — also denied any plans to create a new currency.Another issue expected to feature prominently in the joint statement issued after the BRICS meeting Tuesday is climate change.Brazil is the host of this year’s UN COP30 climate conference, which will take place in November in the Amazon city of Belem.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a three-day truce with Ukraine to coincide with Moscow’s World War II commemorations next month that his Ukrainian rival slammed as an “attempt at manipulation”.Before Putin’s announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held new talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, having declared that this will be a crucial week in a US decision on whether to halt its peace efforts.  The Kremlin said Putin had ordered a “ceasefire” for the 80th anniversary of Victory Day from May 8 to May 10. “All combat operations will be suspended during this period,” it said in a statement.The Kremlin said the halt to fighting would be for humanitarian reasons, as well as the anniversary, and that it expected Kyiv to issue a similar order.Putin also ordered a ceasefire for Easter, when each side accused the other of mass violations though it did lead to a temporary reduction in fighting.Ukraine has demanded an immediate ceasefire lasting at least 30 days and Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation: “Now there’s a new attempt at manipulation: for some reason, everyone has to wait until May 8.””If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately. Why wait until May 8th?” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X.The White House said Monday that US President Donald Trump wants “a permanent ceasefire” and is becoming “increasingly frustrated” with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine.After a meeting with Zelensky at Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, Trump questioned whether the Russian leader was serious about peace.”There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” said Trump, who has also had clashes with Ukrainian leader.Rubio told the Russian foreign minister on Sunday that United States is committed to working to end the “senseless war”, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.She said Rubio spoke to Lavrov about “the next steps in Russia-Ukraine peace talks and the need to end the war now.”Trump has already said that the United States could abandon its peace efforts and Rubio indicated again on Sunday how US patience is wearing thin over the conflict. “This is going to be a very critical week,” he told NBC television, adding that Washington might prefer to focus on “other issues”. Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks on the fighting since the start of Moscow’s offensive. Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, has become the focus of efforts to bring the two sides together.Trump said Monday that he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” Crimea, though the Ukraine leader has ruled this out several times.– Macron’s ‘pressure’ –Russia said Monday that it was ready to negotiate directly with Ukraine but that recognition of its claims over Ukrainian regions including Crimea were “imperative” to resolving the conflict.”The ball is not in our court. So far, Kyiv has not demonstrated its ability to negotiate,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Brazilian newspaper O Globo.Ukraine has denounced Russia’s annexations as an illegal land grab and says it will never recognise them. European officials have warned that accepting Moscow’s demands set a dangerous precedent that could lead to future Russian aggression.Zelensky said last week that Ukraine would “not legally recognise any temporarily occupied territories” and has previously called Moscow’s demand for Kyiv to demilitarise “incomprehensible”.France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that Western nations would “increase pressure on Russia” over the next 10 days and the next two weeks would be “crucial” in trying to start a ceasefire.Macron told Paris Match magazine he had urged Trump in recent discussions to be “tougher” with the Russian president. The French president added that he believed he had “convinced the Americans of the possibility of an escalation of threats, and potentially sanctions” against Moscow.Putin on Monday thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the help of North Korean forces in retaking territory from Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region.

The White House announced Monday a crackdown on “sanctuary cities” that defy Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, as the president closes in on his first 100 days in office.Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the administration would name and shame cities accused of blocking efforts to protect “American communities from criminal aliens.”The Republican leader will sign an executive order later Monday directing officials to publish a list of “jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws,” she told reporters.The announcement came with Trump celebrating major progress in honoring his election campaign promises to stem illegal border crossings from Mexico.The figures soared to all-time highs under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, and the Republican won the White House in part on promises to combat what he repeatedly claimed was an invasion of criminal migrants.But his popularity has since plunged, with more than 40 percent of Americans saying they “disapprove strongly” of him, according to a Washington Post-ABC opinion poll.Trump suggested pollsters and news organizations should be sued for fraud over the “fake news.”The president will this week be hailing his achievements in his first 100 days, claiming successes on the economy, foreign policy and government efficiency as well as on migration.Leavitt noted a 95 percent drop in encounters of undocumented migrants at the Mexico border — from 140,000 to 7,000 — in the 12 months from March 2024, when Biden was still in office.”America’s borders are now secure because of President Trump,” she said. “He has restored the rule of law, enforced our immigration laws and defended America’s sovereignty.”Trump’s election campaign rhetoric about taking on the alleged hordes of rapists and murderers resonated with voters concerned about illegal immigration.- Influx of migrants -As part of the drive to deliver on his pledges, Republicans in Congress are targeting “sanctuary cities,” which typically prohibit local officials from telling federal agents about undocumented immigrants if they are at risk of deportation.Lawmakers hauled the mayors of four such cities — Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York — over the coals at a hearing in March.And Republicans in the House of Representatives released a bill on Monday giving Trump powers to levy a host of onerous immigration charges — including a minimum $1,000 fee for asylum applications.In a sign of the emphasis the administration is placing on immigration, placards lined the White House lawn, each displaying the mugshot of someone the administration called an “illegal alien.”The word “arrested” was printed in capital letters above each photo and, below, the crime of which they were accused — from “first-degree murder” and “sexual abuse of a child” to “distribution of fentanyl.”An accompanying White House press release included a list of 100 individuals that it said were the “worst of the worst criminal illegal immigrants” arrested since Trump took office.Trump has also sent troops to the Mexican border, imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal crossings, and designated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as terrorist groups.But Trump has butted heads with judges, rights groups and Democrats who say he has ignored constitutional rights in rushing to deport migrants, sometimes without the right to a hearing.Tom Homan, Trump’s point man on border security, told reporters Monday that “we have the most secure border in the history of this nation.”He was asked about deportation rates, which have lagged behind Biden’s numbers, despite Trump’s promised campaign of the largest mass removal campaign in US history.The government has not been releasing comprehensive data, but the Migration Policy Institute said it appeared on track to remove half a million people this year — fewer than the 685,000 deportations recorded in fiscal year 2024 under Biden. Homan argued that comparisons were bogus, since Biden’s deportation numbers included people removed at the border, and most of those people were now being stopped before getting in.

A multi-million-dollar US warplane fell off the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier into the Red Sea on Monday in an accident that injured one sailor, the Navy said.A tractor that was towing the fighter plane — a model that cost $67 million in 2021 — also slipped off the ship into the sea.”The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement.”Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard,” it said. “All personnel are accounted for, with one sailor sustaining a minor injury.”The carrier and its other planes remain in action and the incident is under investigation, the Navy added. No details of recovery work were released.It is the second F/A-18 operating off the Truman to be lost in less than six months, after another was mistakenly shot down by the USS Gettysburg guided missile cruiser late last year in incident that both pilots survived.The Truman is one of two US aircraft carriers operating in the Middle East, where US forces have been hammering Yemen’s Huthi rebels with strikes since mid-March in an attempt to end the threat they pose to ships in the region.

Venezuela accused Washington Monday of “abduction” in the case of a two-year-old girl separated from her migrant parents, who were deported from the United States without her.The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said the girl was placed in foster care to protect her from her parents, who it claimed were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua drug gang.In a statement Monday, the foreign ministry in Caracas denounced “the abduction by US authorities of the young Venezuelan Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, aged two” and called for her “immediate” return to her parents.Under US President Donald Trump, the DHS has carried out a crackdown on immigration, deporting thousands of primarily Latin American migrants that it says are undocumented and cancelling the legal status of others.The administration has said that many of those it has deported are members of criminal gangs, including Tren de Aragua, but has provided limited evidence to back that claim. Lawyers and family members of many deportees deny the allegations.The DHS did not say where it deported the girl’s parents to, but Venezuela believes her father was among about 250 men sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison for the country’s most violent criminals.In a statement Saturday, the DHS claimed the father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was a Tren de Aragua “lieutenant” who “oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house.”The girl’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte, “oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution,” the DHS said.It said the girl was “taken off the deportation flight manifest for her safety and welfare. The child remains in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and is currently placed with a foster family.”The department branded both parents “criminal illegal aliens” and said their expulsion had been approved by a judge.Tren de Aragua has been designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the Trump administration, which has paid El Salvador millions of dollars to lock up nearly 300 deported migrants it claims are criminals and gang members.At least one of them, Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was found to have been wrongly deported, but both Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele have washed their hands of his case.Last week, Venezuelan prosecutors said they were investigating the “forced disappearance” of a citizen detained in the United States in January, but whose whereabouts are now “unknown.”

A US warplane went overboard into the Red Sea as a result of a Monday accident on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the country’s Navy said.”The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement.”All personnel are accounted for, with one sailor sustaining a minor injury,” it said, adding that the carrier and its air wing remain mission capable and that the incident is under investigation.The F/A-18E reached initial operating capability in the early 2000s and had a unit cost of more than $67 million as of fiscal year 2021, according to a Navy fact sheet.The Truman is one of two US aircraft carriers currently operating in the Middle East, where Washington’s forces have been hammering Yemen’s Huthi rebels with strikes since mid-March in an attempt to end the threat they pose to ships in the region.