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KYIV - Ukraine will abide by an Easter truce, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, hours after Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to pause all combat activity until 2100 GMT on April 20 (5am on April 21 in Singapore).

“If Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly – mirroring Russia’s actions,” Mr Zelensky said on April 19, in a post on X.

He proposed “extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20.”

But the Ukrainian leader also accused Russia of having already broken its promises.

“Russian assault operations continue on several front-line sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided,” he said.

Ukraine’s Kherson governor reported several Russian drone attacks after Mr Putin’s order was supposed to have come into force at 6pm.

Ukraine’s air force issue air-raid warnings across several regions in eastern Ukraine on April 19 evening, also while the ceasefire was supposed to be in effect.

Dozens of opponents of President Kais Saied were imprisoned for 13 to 66 years for national security offenses. Their trial was labeled a "farce" and part of a clampdown by the North African nation's authoritarian ruler.

A court in Tunisia sentenced opposition figures, businessmen and lawyers to jail terms of 13 to 66 years after they were found guilty of conspiring against state security, state media reported on Saturday.

The opposition said the charges were fabricated and that the trial was a symbol of President Kais Saied's authoritarian rule.

What do we know about the case?

State news agency TAP first reported the sentences that ranged from 13 to 66 years, citing a judicial spokesperson as saying they were enforced immediately.

Forty people were prosecuted in the case, although more than half of them fled abroad after being charged.

Tunisian media outlets reported that the defendants were found guilty of "conspiracy against state security and belonging to a terrorist group."

Authorities say the defendants tried to destabilize the country and overthrow Saied.

Many of those jailed were vocal critics of the president, including Nejib Chebbi, the leader of the main National Salvation Front opposition coalition.

Chebbi told reporters before Friday's sentencing that the trial proved that Tunisian authorities wanted to "criminalize the opposition."

Others include Chebbi's brother, Issam Chebbi, the leader of the centrist Republican Party, Ghazi Chaouachi, the head of the center-left Democratic Current party, and Abdelhamid Jelassi, from Ennahda, an Islamic democratic movement.

A former head of intelligence, Kamel Guizan, was also one of the defendants.

If Russia is able to maintain a full ceasefire throughout Easter weekend, Ukraine would like to extend the truce for 30 days, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 19.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he ordered a halt on all combat operations during the Easter holiday. The temporary ceasefire is set to last from 6 p.m. Moscow time on April 19 until midnight on April 21.

Zelensky said that Kyiv was prepared to abide by a ceasefire if Russia is serious about halting attacks, but will respond in kind if Russia violates the truce.

"If complete silence really prevails, Ukraine proposes to extend it after the end of Easter on April 20," President Volodymyr Zelensky said the evening of April 19.

"This will show Russia's true intentions, because 30 hours is enough for headlines, but not for real confidence-building measures. Thirty days can give peace a chance."

Russia has not suspended all assault operations on the front line, Zelensky said, citing reports from Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. The continued shelling and attacks undermine trust in Moscow's claims of a truce.

"The Ukrainian Defense Forces will act rationally, responding in a mirror manner. There will be an adequate response to every Russian strike," Zelensky said.

Ukraine remains ready to begin an unconditional ceasefire in line with Washington's previous proposal for a 30-day truce as soon as Russia agrees to the same terms, the president said.

DOHA, April 5 (Reuters) - Congo's government and M23 rebels last week held private talks in Qatar for the first time since the rebels conducted a lightning offensive in the country's east, a source briefed on the discussions told Reuters.

The talks, which will continue next week in Doha, offer the greatest hope of a halt to hostilities since M23 seized eastern Congo's two largest cities, a rapid advance that since January has resulted in thousands of deaths and forced hundreds of thousands more from their homes.

The fighting has raised fears of a wider regional war, as Congo's neighbours Uganda and Burundi also have troops in the region.

Reuters reported last week that Kinshasa and M23 planned to hold their first direct talks in Doha on April 9. But the source with knowledge of the situation said private talks were also held last week.

They were positive, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity, and prompted the rebels to withdraw from the strategic town of Walikale, in an area rich in minerals including tin, as a goodwill gesture.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sending children back to school in new sneakers, jeans and T-shirts is likely to cost U.S. families significantly more this fall if the bespoke tariffs President Donald Trump put on leading exporters take effect as planned, American industry groups warn.

About 97% of the clothes and shoes purchased in the U.S. are imported, predominantly from Asia, the American Apparel & Footwear Association said, citing its most recent data. Walmart, Gap Inc., Lululemon and Nike are a few of the companies that have a majority of their clothing made in Asian countries.

Those same garment-making hubs took a big hit under the president’s plan to punish individual countries for trade imbalances. For all Chinese goods, that meant tariffs of at least 54%. He set the import tax rates for Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia at 46% and 49%, and products from Bangladesh and Indonesia at 37% and 32%.

Working with foreign factories has kept labor costs down for U.S. companies in the fashion trade, but neither they nor their overseas suppliers are likely to absorb new costs that high. India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also got slapped with high tariffs so aren’t immediate sourcing alternatives.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After hiding in Thailand for seven years, two Cambodian journalists arrived in the United States last year on work visas, aiming to keep providing people in their Southeast Asian homeland with objective, factual news through Radio Free Asia.

But Vuthy Tha and Hour Hum now say their jobs and legal status in the U.S. are at risk after President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order gutting the government-run U.S. Agency for Global Media. The agency funds Radio Free Asia and other outlets tasked with delivering uncensored information to parts of the world under authoritarian rule and often without a free press of their own.

“It fell out of sky,” Vuthy, a single father of two small children, said through a translator about the Trump administration’s decision, which he says threatens to upend his life.

“I am very regretful that our listeners cannot receive the accurate news,” Hour said, also through a translator.

Both men said they’re worried about providing for their families and being allowed to stay in the U.S. They say it’s impossible to return to Cambodia, a single-party state hostile to independent media where they fear being persecuted for their journalistic work.

A second school-age child who was hospitalized with measles is the third measles-related death in the U.S. since the virus started ripping through West Texas in late January.

The child died Thursday, according to state health officials. The child was 8 years old, according to a statement from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, confirmed the child was unvaccinated and being treated for measles complications.

The U.S. now has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024, with Texas reporting another large jump in cases and hospitalizations on Friday. Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. The virus has been spreading in undervaccinated communities.

The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said last week that cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

About 45 years have passed since a U.S. state last eliminated its income tax on wages and salaries. But with recent actions in Mississippi and Kentucky, two states now are on a path to do so, if their economies keep growing.

The push to zero out the income tax is perhaps the most aggressive example of a tax-cutting trend that swept across states as they rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic with surging revenues and historic surpluses.

But it comes during a time of greater uncertainty for states, as they wait to see whether President Donald Trump’s cost cutting and tariffs lead to a reduction in federal funding for states and a downturn in the overall economy.

Some fiscal analysts also warn the repeal of income taxes could leave states reliant on other levies, such as sales taxes, that disproportionately affect the poor.

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — The U.S. government’s decision to arrest a Maryland man and send him to a notorious prison in El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless,” a federal judge wrote Sunday in a legal opinion explaining why she had ordered the Trump administration to bring him back to the United States.

There is little to no evidence to support a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was once in the MS-13 street gang, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote. And in any case, she said, an immigration judge had expressly barred the U.S. in 2019 from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, where he faced likely persecution by local gangs.

“As defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador — let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere,” Xinis wrote.

Officials reportedly didn’t publicly acknowledge death until inquiries were made about woman, 52, who overstayed visa

A woman being detained in Arizona by US border patrol for overstaying her visa has died by suicide, according to Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

The woman, a 52-year-old Chinese national, had first been picked up in California after it had been determined that she had overstayed her B1/B2 visitor visa, Jayapal said in a statement. She was later sent to the Yuma station in Arizona where she stayed until her death on 29 March.

The Tucson Sentinel first reported the woman’s death, saying that border patrol officials did not follow internal policies about publicly acknowledging the death of someone in custody – and then only provided a statement after the Sentinel made inquiries.

Yuma sector border patrol reported in a social media post that two people – a 38-year-old man and the woman, both Chinese nationals – had been arrested on 26 March during a vehicle stop near Needles, California. The agents seized more than $220,000 wrapped in aluminum foil in two duffel bags which officials say was the proceeds from unspecified illegal activity.

Jayapal said “initial reports” suggest border patrol agents failed to perform required welfare checks prior to the woman’s death.

The Trump administration has fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency, the United States’ powerful cyber intelligence bureau, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation, members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and two former officials familiar with the matter.

The dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads US Cyber Command — the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit — is a major shakeup of the US intelligence community which is navigating significant changes in the first two months of the Trump administration. Wendy Noble, Haugh’s deputy at NSA, was also removed, according to the former officials and lawmakers.

The top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committee, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, denounced the firing of Haugh, who served in the roles since February 2024, in statements on Thursday night.

Lt. Gen. William Hartman, an experienced military officer and the deputy of Cyber Command, is expected to serve as acting head of the command and NSA, the two former officials said.

The news of the dismissals comes as the White House also fired multiple staff members on the National Security Council on Thursday, after Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who once claimed 9/11 was an inside job, urged President Donald Trump during a Wednesday meeting to do so, arguing that they were disloyal.

Loomer, who brought a list with roughly a dozen names of people she deemed insufficient in their support of Trump, also advocated for the firing of Haugh and Noble, two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.

During the meeting, Loomer told the president that Haugh specifically should be fired because he was handpicked by the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. Haugh was nominated in 2023, while Milley was serving, to head up the NSA and Cyber Command.

White House has said US courts can’t order return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wife has been protesting outside court

A federal judge on Friday afternoon ordered the US to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison after a Trump administration attorney was at a loss to explain what happened.

The wife of the man, who was flown to a notorious Salvadoran prison had earlier joined dozens of supporters at a rally before a court hearing on Friday, where his lawyers had asked the judge – Paula Xinis – to order the Trump administration to return him to the US.

Xinis on Friday called Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation “an illegal act” and pressed US justice department attorney Erez Reuveni for answers. Reuveni had few, if any, to offer, conceding that Abrego Garcia should not have been removed from the US and sent to El Salvador. He could not cite any authority held by the Trump administration to arrest Abrego Garcia in Maryland.

“I’m also frustrated that I have no answers for you for a lot of these questions,” he said.

Reuveni said, “I don’t know,” when asked why Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador, which has a history rife with human rights abuses.