Kremlin wants Ukraine response to ceasefire
Moscow — The Kremlin said on Saturday it wanted what it called a “definitive” response from Ukraine to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of a three-day ceasefire to coincide with World War 2 victory commemorations this month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was only ready to agree if the ceasefire will last at least 30 days.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s three-day offer was a test to assess Kyiv’s readiness to search for a peaceful settlement to end the war. Reuters
Medvedev slams Trump’s World War 2 assertion
Moscow — Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, said on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s assertion that the US had done more than any other country to win World War 2 was “pretentious nonsense”.
Trump posted on social network Truth Social late on Thursday that “nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance” in both world wars, and that “we did more than any other country, by far, in producing a victorious result in World War 2”. Reuters
Yemen prime minister resigns amid ‘difficulties’
Aden — Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, prime minister of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said in a statement on Saturday he had resigned after facing “lots of difficulties” including being unable to reshuffle the government.
His exit follows conflict with Rashad Al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s presidential council, over his powers after the latter refused Mubarak’s request to dismiss 12 of the government’s ministers, six government sources said.
They said finance minister Salem Saleh Bin Braik was set to be appointed the new prime minister. Reuters
Brazil’s Bolsonaro recovering from abdominal surgery
Brasilia — Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro is expected to be discharged from the hospital “in the coming days” after major abdominal surgery last month to treat an intestinal obstruction, his medical team said on Saturday.
The far-right leader was taken off intravenous nutrition on Saturday, according to the statement, which added that hospital visits remain restricted for now.
Bolsonaro underwent his sixth surgery on April 13 in Brasilia related to the injuries he sustained in a 2018 stabbing attack. Reuters
Israel calls up reservists ahead of new Gaza offensive
Tel Aviv— The Israeli military was issuing call-up notices to thousands of reservists on Saturday to support an expansion of its offensive in Gaza, Israeli media reported, after the prime minister announced that his upcoming visit to Azerbaijan was postponed.
The reservists will be deployed to Israel’s border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank, replacing regular soldiers who will lead a new offensive in Gaza, the news site Ynet reported.
The military had no immediate comment. Reuters
White House post AI image depicting Trump as pope
West Palm Beach — President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated photo showing himself as the pope ahead of a gathering of cardinals to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion-strong Catholic Church, and just days after he joked he would “like to be pope”.
Trump, who is not a Catholic and does not attend church regularly, posted the image on his Truth Social platform late on Friday, less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died at 88 last month. The White House reposted it on its X account.
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni declined to comment on the image during a briefing with journalists about the process of electing a new pope, which begins on May 7. Reuters
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