President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ahead of talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia at an increasingly precarious moment for Kyiv.
Police in Seoul will be out in force, and subway stations and at least one school will be closed over safety concerns when South Korea’s Constitutional Court rules whether to oust or reinstate impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Israel’s suspension of goods entering Gaza was taking a toll on the Palestinian enclave, with some bakeries closing and food prices rising, while a cut in the electricity supply could deprive people of clean water, said Palestinian officials.
Zelensky arrives in Saudi Arabia ahead of crunch US talks
President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ahead of talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia at an increasingly precarious moment for Kyiv.
Zelensky arrived in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, a Ukrainian official told Reuters.
The US, once Ukraine’s main ally, has upended its wartime policies in its stated pursuit of a rapid end to the fighting, engaging directly with Moscow while cutting off military assistance and intelligence sharing for Kyiv.
Zelensky was expected to meet the Saudi crown prince, whose country has played various mediating roles since Russia’s 2022 invasion, including brokering prisoner exchanges and hosting talks between Russia and the US last month.
Tuesday’s talks between US and Ukrainian officials — the first official meeting since a disastrous Oval Office encounter between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump — are expected to focus on a bilateral minerals deal and how to end the war.
Under huge pressure from Trump, who wants the war ended at lightning speed, Zelensky has been at pains to show they are on the same page, despite failing to win US security guarantees that Kyiv sees as vital for any peace deal.
Zelensky has said he will not attend Tuesday’s talks with US officials and that the Ukrainian delegation will include his chief of staff, his foreign and defence ministers and a top military official in the presidential administration.
“On our side, we are fully committed to constructive dialogue, and we hope to discuss and agree on the necessary decisions and steps,” said Zelensky in a post on X.
“Realistic proposals are on the table. The key is to move quickly and effectively.”
US officials said they were planning to use the meeting with the Ukrainians in part to determine whether Kyiv was willing to make material concessions to Russia to end the war.
“You can’t say ‘I want peace,’ and ‘I refuse to compromise on anything’,” said one of the officials of the upcoming talks.
A second US official said: “We want to see if the Ukrainians are interested not just in peace, but in a realistic peace.”
Trump said on Sunday that he expected good results from the upcoming talks, adding that the US had “just about” ended a suspension of intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been arranging the talks, has said the idea was to “get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well”.
Zelensky has called for a truce in the air and at sea, as well as a prisoner exchange, in what he says could be a test of Russia's commitment to ending the war.
Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France, saying it was a bid to buy time for Kyiv and prevent its military collapse.
Zelensky has also said Kyiv is ready to sign the minerals deal with the US, which would create a joint fund from the sale of Ukrainian minerals. Washington says it is crucial to secure continued US backing.
With US support in question, Zelensky has been urging his European allies to ramp up their support as Kyiv's battlefield position deteriorates and it faces mounting pressure to retreat from Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian troops that stormed into the Kursk region last summer are nearly surrounded by Russian forces, open source maps show.
Russia holds around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, and its troops are also pressing in the eastern Donetsk region, having ramped up drone and missile strikes on cities and towns far from the front.
Russia has launched 1,200 aerial guided bombs, nearly 870 attack drones and more than 80 missiles at Ukraine in the past week alone, Zelensky has said.
Safety concerns in Seoul ahead of Yoon impeachment ruling
Police in Seoul will be out in force, and subway stations and at least one school will be closed over safety concerns when South Korea’s Constitutional Court rules whether to oust or reinstate impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yoon’s political fate hangs in the balance after his short-lived martial law decree on 3 December led to his impeachment and separate criminal charges of insurrection.
The impeachment ruling is expected to come as soon as this week, and supporters and opponents of Yoon are expected to turn out in large numbers, with recent protests gathering tens of thousands.
“We are setting up plans considering the worst-case scenarios,” Lee Ho-young, acting commissioner general of the National Police Agency, told reporters.
Police officers can use pepper spray or batons in case of violence similar to what happened during a rampage by Yoon supporters on a court building in January, added Lee.
On the day of the ruling, a subway station near the Constitutional Court will be closed, and trains might not stop at other subway stations where large rallies are expected, said the Seoul Metro.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education sent out letters in late February advising six schools near the court to take safety measures, including closing down on the ruling day, Kim Eun-mi, an official at the education office, told Reuters.
One school decided to close for the day, said Kim.
During the court hearings so far, rings of police officers and vehicles have surrounded gatherings of thousands of Yoon supporters.
“Security has to be tighter than ever, as you can imagine how precarious this situation can get,” a police official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Israel’s halt to food and aid deliveries worsens Gaza conditions
Israel’s suspension of goods entering Gaza was taking a toll on the Palestinian enclave, with some bakeries closing and food prices rising, while a cut in the electricity supply could deprive people of clean water, said Palestinian officials.
The suspension, which Israel said was aimed at pressuring militant group Hamas in ceasefire talks, applies to food, medicine and fuel imports.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa said the decision to halt humanitarian aid threatened the lives of civilians exhausted by 17 months of “brutal” war. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were dependent on aid, it said.
Hamas describes the measure as “collective punishment” and insisted it will not be pushed into making concessions at the discussions.
Abdel-Nasser Al-Ajrami, the head of the Gaza bakers’ union, told Reuters that six out of the 22 bakeries still able to operate in the enclave had already shut after they ran out of cooking gas.
“The remaining bakeries may close down in a week or so should they run out of diesel or flour, unless the crossing is reopened to allow the goods to flow,” he said.
“The 22 bakeries were not enough to meet the needs of the people, with six of them shutting down now, that would increase the demand for bread and worsen the condition,” he added.
Israel last week blocked the entry of goods into the territory in a standoff over a truce that has halted fighting for the past seven weeks.
The move has led to a hike in prices of essential foods as well as of fuel, forcing many to ration their meals.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to Gaza health officials, left most of its people destitute and razed much of the territory to the ground.
The war was triggered by a Hamas-led cross-border raid into southern Israel in which militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
In Israel’s latest punitive measure, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Sunday he had instructed the Israel Electric Corporation not to sell electricity to Gaza in what he described as a means of pressure on Hamas to free hostages.
Israel already cut power supply to Gaza at the war’s start, but this move would affect a wastewater treatment plant presently supplied with power, according to the Israeli electricity company.
The Palestinian Water Authority said the decision suspended operations at a water desalination plant that produced 18,000 cubic metres of water per day for the population in central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip.
Mohammad Thabet, the spokesperson of the Gaza power distribution plant, told Reuters the decision would deprive people in those areas of clean and healthy water.
“The decision is catastrophic; municipalities now will be obliged to let sewage water stream into the sea, which may result in environmental and health risks that go beyond the boundaries of Gaza,” said Thabet.
He said there was not enough fuel to operate stand-by generators in desalination and sewage plants.
All the aid supplies being distributed by the Palestine Red Crescent were dwindling and it was having to ration remaining supplies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) societies told Reuters.
“If it is possible to find the basics like eggs and chicken, the prices have rocketed and are out of reach for the majority of people in Gaza. One of our colleagues in Gaza spent the whole day on Friday trying to find some chicken to feed his children and was unsuccessful,” said IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa.
Fighting in Gaza has been halted since 19 January under a truce, and Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
But the truce’s initial 42-day stage has expired and Hamas and Israel remain far apart on broader issues including the postwar governance of Gaza and the future of Hamas itself.
Underscoring the fragility of the ceasefire, an Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian in the Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip, said medics. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, and the US are trying to salvage the ceasefire deal. They held talks with Hamas leaders and were set to receive Israeli negotiators in Doha on Monday.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua told Reuters on Monday the group was committed to the original phased agreement and expected mediators to “compel” Israel to begin talks on implementing the second stage.
Phase two is intended to focus on agreements on the release of remaining hostages and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Israel demands Hamas free the remaining hostages without beginning phase two negotiations.
US immigration agents arrest Palestinian student protester at Columbia University
US immigration agents arrested a Palestinian graduate student who has played a prominent role in pro-Palestinian protests at New York’s Columbia University as part of US President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on some anti-Israel activists.
Mahmoud Khalil, a student at the university’s School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by US Department of Homeland Security agents at his university residence on Saturday evening, said the Student Workers of Columbia labour union.
His wife is a US citizen, eight months pregnant, according to news reports, and he holds a US permanent residency green card, the union said. His arrest was condemned by civil rights groups as an attack on protected political speech.
In an interview with Reuters hours before his arrest on Saturday about Trump’s criticism of student protesters, Khalil said he was concerned that he was being targeted by the government for speaking to the media.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a news report of Khalil’s arrest on social media on Sunday, adding the comment: “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” He did not elaborate and spokespeople for Rubio did not respond to questions.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a social media post that it had arrested Khalil because he had “led activities aligned to Hamas”, without elaborating.
Khalil’s detention is one of the first efforts by Trump to fulfil his promise to seek the deportation of some foreign students involved in the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which he has called anti-Semitic.
Khalil grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in his native Syria and has worked for the British embassy in Beirut, according to an online biography.
He was being held on Sunday at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centre in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to the ICE online detainee locator. Khalil's wife declined to comment through one of Khalil’s fellow students.
Trump has singled out Columbia for its handling of student protesters and has quickly increased pressure on the school: Khalil’s arrest came a day after the Trump administration said it had cancelled government contracts and grants awarded to Columbia University worth about $400-million. It said the cuts and the student deportation efforts, which face legal challenges, are because of anti-Semitic harassment “on and near” Columbia’s Manhattan campus.
“What more can Columbia do to appease Congress or the government now?” Khalil told Reuters hours before his arrest, noting that Columbia had repeatedly called in police to arrest protesters and had disciplined many pro-Palestinian students and staff, suspending some.
“They basically silenced anyone supporting Palestine on campus and this was not enough. Clearly, Trump is using the protesters as a scapegoat for his wider agenda fighting and attacking higher education and the Ivy League education system.”
Philippines’ Duterte says he will accept arrest if ICC issues warrant
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte said in Hong Kong that he was ready for possible arrest amid reports the International Criminal Court (ICC) was poised to issue a warrant over his yearslong “war on drugs” that killed thousands.
The “war on drugs” was the signature campaign policy that swept Duterte to power in 2016 as a maverick, crime-busting mayor, who delivered on promises he made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of narcotics dealers.
The office of the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said on Monday no official communication had been received from Interpol yet, but indicated Duterte could be handed over.
“Our law enforcers are ready to follow what law dictates, if the warrant of arrest needs to be served because of a request from Interpol,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro told reporters.
It was not immediately clear how long Duterte would stay in China-ruled Hong Kong — which is not a party to the ICC. Duterte was in the city to speak at a campaign rally attended by thousands of Filipino workers, hoping to boost support for his senatorial candidates in upcoming Philippine midterm elections.
“Assuming it’s [the arrest warrant] true, why did I do it? For myself? For my family? For you and your children, and for our nation,” Duterte told the rally, justifying his brutal anti-narcotics campaign.
“If this is truly my fate in life, it’s okay, I will accept it. They can arrest me, imprison me. What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life for the Filipino people,” he told the cheering crowds in Hong Kong’s downtown Southorn Stadium, appearing with his daughter, the Philippines Vice-President Sara Duterte.
Duterte unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC's founding treaty in 2019 when it started looking into allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings.
Trump administration scraps over 80% of USAID programmes
The Trump administration has cancelled more than 80% of all the programmes at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) following a six-week review, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday.
“The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” said Rubio in an X post.
The remaining approximately 1,000 programmes, he said, would now be administered “more effectively” under the State Department and in consultation with Congress.
Trump returned to office on 20 January and immediately ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid pending a review of whether the programmes aligned with his “America First” foreign policy.
The order, and ensuing stop work orders, threw USAID into turmoil, halting the agency's operations around the world, jeopardising the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.
The administration said it provided waivers for life-saving aid, but humanitarian workers around the world said the funding remained shut.
Thousands of staff were put on leave or fired and contractors terminated. The majority of those put on leave are not expected to be reinstated.
The top US diplomat also thanked the staffers of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk, who has been conducting an unprecedented scaling down of the US federal government. DM