Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

The United States will slash its tariffs on goods from Switzerland to 15 percent from a crippling 39 percent under a new framework trade agreement that includes a pledge by Swiss companies to invest $200bn into the US by the end of 2028, the Swiss government has said. The announcement by Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin on Friday brings the US tariff rate on Swiss goods in line with those from the European Union (EU). Parmelin told a news conference that the tariff reduction would provide relief for about 40 percent of Switzerland's total exports.

According to Ukraine's Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), the alleged $100m scheme was orchestrated by businessman Timur Mindich, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. SAPO's investigators say Galushchenko helped Mindich manage illicit financial flows in the energy sector, while contractors working with Energoatom were forced to pay bribes of 10 to 15 percent to avoid losing contracts or facing payment delays.

Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said the army's situation has significantly worsened in parts of the southeastern Zaporizhia region amid fierce fighting with Russian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that he had received an update from Syrskii, which conveyed that the situation remains difficult in the Zaporizhia region, as well as in the direction of the embattled city of Pokrovsk. Zaporizhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said that a Russian drone attack killed a 56-year-old man in the Polohivskyi district. Also in Zaporizhia, the Kushuhum Village Council announced in a post on the Telegram messaging app that families with children must begin mandatory evacuations from the area.

Ukraine accuses Russia of luring recruits from Africa into suicidal' military contracts to bolster its war efforts. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said that more than 1,400 people from 36 African nations are known to be fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine, urging governments to warn their citizens against joining a conflict where they are quickly killed. Foreign citizens in the Russian army have a sad fate, Sybiha wrote on X. Most of them are immediately sent to the so-called meat assaults', where they are quickly killed.

Days earlier, she said Moscow was forced to develop and test the cruise missile, which is named the Burevestnik, meaning storm petrel a type of seabird, in response to NATO's hostility towards Russia. The development can be characterised as forced and takes place to maintain strategic balance, she was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying. Russia has to respond to NATO's increasingly destabilising actions in the field of missile defence.

When presenting the reports, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos praised Ukraine for combatting corruption but warned there was more work to do. list of 3 itemsend of list Earlier this year, Zelenskyy's ruling party pushed amendments through parliament that gave the president's hand-picked general prosecutor the power to transfer cases away from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and reassign prosecutors.

The centre-left D66 has almost tripled its seats in parliament, while the far-right Freedom Party suffered a sharp decrease in its representation from its record win in 2023. The centre-left D66 party has made huge gains in the Netherlands' general election, with it likely taking the lead in government formation talks as the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) haemorrhaged support among voters. With 90 percent of the votes counted early on Thursday, D66 and PVV were both projected to take 26 seats

A Polish court has blocked the extradition of a Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany in connection with the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions, a handover that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this month was not in his country's best interests. The Warsaw District Court rejected the extradition of the man, only identified as Volodymyr Z, on Friday and ordered his immediate release.

Every day I see cars that ran out of fuel and were left on the curb, Ayder, a resident of Simferopol, Crimea's administrative capital, told Al Jazeera. His car runs on natural gas, which is more available these days. There are long lines and fistfights at gas stations after a limit of 20 litres (5.3 gallons) per car was introduced, he said, withholding his last name out of fear of punishment for talking to foreign media.

Russian forces have struck a hospital and a United Nations convoy in Ukraine, officials say, in attacks likely to bolster President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's pitch for long-range Tomahawk missiles when he meets his United States counterpart later this week. Officials said on Tuesday that overnight attacks involving drones and glide bombs struck a hospital in Kharkiv, injuring 57 people and forcing the evacuation of 50 patients.

William Bill Fobister remembers when things changed, seemingly overnight. The 79-year-old had grown up fishing across the sprawling English-Wabigoon River system. And the deep blue waters that lap the shores of his Ojibwe community - Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek, better known as Grassy Narrows - had fed his people since time immemorial. [My dad] was a commercial fisherman, and I helped him. That's how we survived, Bill recalls, sitting at a yellow picnic table in his backyard on a rainy August morning.

Despite concerns about United States President Donald Trump's proposed plan to end the war on Gaza, which calls for a transitional authority ultimately headed by the US leader, Jamal said there was an immense sense of relief. A sea of red and green, the colours of the Palestinian flag, formed along the embankment of the River Thames in central London, where the largely peaceful march began.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has alleged that drones and missiles fired by Russia against his country are filled with parts sourced from Western companies. In a social media post on Monday, Zelenskyy said the hundreds of weapons used in Russian attacks over the previous two nights contained tens of thousands of components produced by firms in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Taiwan and China.