RUSSIA-UKRAINE TALKS YIELD NO PROGRESS

Ukraine’s foreign minister said he discussed a 24-hour ceasefire with his Russian counterpart but no progress was made as Moscow’s representative defended its invasion and said it was going as planned.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met for face-to-face talks in Turkey on Thursday in the first high-level contact between the two sides.

Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said he secured no promise from Russia’s Sergey Lavrov to halt firing so aid could reach civilians, including the main humanitarian priority – evacuating hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the besieged port city of Mariupol.

“We also talked on the ceasefire but no progress was accomplished on that,” Kuleba told reporters after meeting Lavrov.

“It seems that there are other decision-makers for this matter in Russia,” Kuleba added in apparent reference to the Kremlin.

He described the meeting as “difficult” and accused Lavrov of bringing “traditional narratives” to the table.

“I want to repeat that Ukraine has not surrendered, does not surrender, and will not surrender,” said Kuleba.

Lavrov, meanwhile, said Russia wants to continue negotiations with Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin would not refuse a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss “specific” issues.

Lavrov said Russia would not have started the conflict in Ukraine if the West had not rejected “our proposal on security guarantees“.

“I don’t want to believe, and I do not believe, that a nuclear war could start,” he told a news conference.

The meeting between Lavrov and Kuleba took place on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum near Antalya on Thursday. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also participated.

KREMLIN HITS BACK AT WESTERN SANCTIONS WITH EXPORT BANS

The Kremlin has banned exports of telecom, medical, auto, agricultural, electrical and tech equipment, as well as some forestry products, until the end of 2022, in retaliation for Western sanctions on Moscow, it said on Thursday.

In total, over 200 items were included on the export suspension list, which also covered railway cars, containers and turbines.

It will suspend exports of wheat, meslin, rye, barley and corn to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) until August 31 in a move to secure its home market with enough food, the Economy Ministry said on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin said Moscow — a major energy producer that supplies a third of Europe’s gas — would continue to export oil and gas, including through Ukraine, to meet its contractual obligations.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that sanctions imposed against Russia would rebound against the West.

PENTAGON TRIES TO PLACATE US LAWMAKERS ABOUT INDIA’S UN VOTE ON RUSSIA

Top Pentagon officials have shown an understanding of India abstaining at the UN on resolutions against the Russian aggression against Ukraine but had a hard time pacifying many US lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific on New Delhi's repeated abstention at the world body in New York.

Several US lawmakers, including Indian-American Ro Khanna, questioned the Pentagon leadership as to why India did not vote along with the US and its allies at the UN during the Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific on Wednesday.

"From the US perspective, I think India is an absolutely essential partner as we think about our strategy in the Indo-Pacific, and both in terms of how we're building coalition partners as well as dealing with potential adversaries. "We recognise that India has a complicated history and relationship with Russia," Ely Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defence for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, told members of the House Armed Services Committee.

Responding to a question from Congressman Bill Keating, Ratner said that the majority of weapons that India buys are from Russia.

"The good news is that they are in a multi-year process of diversifying their arms purchases away from Russia. That's going to take some time, but they are clearly committed to doing that, including increasing the indigenous -- indigenisation of their own defence industry.

"That's something we should support. So, I think in terms of their relationship with Russia, the trend lines are moving in the right direction," he said.

Khanna questioned why India has abstained three times on the Security Council and is unwilling to condemn Putin's unprovoked aggression into Ukraine.

"We're aware that India has a long history and complicated economic and security partnership with the Russians. They received a majority of their weapons from Russia historically. "And that's something they've been working hard to wean themselves from. But defer to them to speak on their own exact decision making on this," Ratner said.

He further added: "We understand and recognise that they have a long-complicated history and security partnership with the Russians, but that they've been systematically diversifying away from that, and we've been engaging with them on that question, looking for them to purchase more US systems, more European systems and develop their own indigenous capabilities as well, and I think the trend lines are moving in the right direction".

RUSSIA SAYS MARIUPOL HOSPITAL ATTACK "STAGED" BY UKRAINE

The Russian army claimed Thursday that an attack on a children's hospital in the southeastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which killed three including a child and caused global outrage, was a "staged provocation" by Ukraine.

"The Russian aviation carried out absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground in the Mariupol area," Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

"The airstrike that allegedly took place is a completely staged provocation to maintain anti-Russian hype for a Western audience," he said.

The bombing of the maternity hospital resulted in three deaths, including one child, according to the city's mayor. An earlier tally by Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday said 17 people were injured.

NATO ‘STRONGER’, RUSSIA ‘WEAKER’ BECAUSE OF PUTIN, US VP HARRIS SAYS

US Vice-President Kamala Harris on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin has only made the NATO Western defense alliance "stronger" through his country's invasion of Ukraine.

"The NATO alliance is stronger and Russia is weaker because of what Putin has done. That is very clear to us," Harris told reporters alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw.

The Polish head of state for his part said that "we must save Ukraine".

"We must set additional sanctions against Russia. We cannot tolerate such military activity that carries with it hallmarks of genocide," Duda added.

"Because no one has any doubts that . . . If regular people are being killed, if bombs and rockets are being launched at residential areas where there are no military installations, then that is barbarity."

Both leaders condemned Russia's bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine's Mariupol on Wednesday, with Harris calling it "an act of violence — unprovoked, unjustified".

"We have been witnessing for weeks and certainly just in the last 24 hours atrocities of unimaginable proportion," she added.

MOSCOW MAY ENGAGE IN FALSE FLAG CHEMICAL ATTACKS, SAYS U.S.

Dismissing Russian claims about the U.S. having chemical and biological weapons labs in Ukraine as “preposterous”, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Russia could be preparing the ground for using such weapons in Ukraine or that it may be setting up a false flag operation using these banned methods of warfare.

“This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent,” Ms. Psaki said on Twitter, adding the U.S. was in compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention and not developing or in possession of these weapons anywhere.

Russia had a track-record of using chemical weapons in poisoning and attempting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political enemies, Ms. Psaki said, citing the example of Russian dissident leader Alexey Navalny.

Mr. Navalny, currently in jail, has called for an end to the war. “It’s Russia that continues to support the Assad regime in Syria, which has repeatedly used chemical weapons. It’s Russia that has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law,” Ms. Psaki wrote.

“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern,” Ms. Psaki said.

EUROPEAN UNION DASHES UKRAINE'S HOPES OF QUICK MEMBERSHIP

European Union leaders on Thursday condemned the "unspeakable suffering" Russia was inflicting on Ukraine but at a summit in France they refused Kyiv's appeal for rapid accession to the bloc and differed over the reach of sanctions against Moscow.

The Russian invasion - the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two - has upended Europe's security order and spurred EU capitals into rethinking what the bloc should stand for, its economic, defense and energy policies.

The EU was swift in imposing sweeping sanctions and offering political and humanitarian support to Ukraine, as well as some arms supplies, in the days after Russia attacked on Feb.24.

However, cracks have appeared in the bloc's united front, from its reaction to Kyiv's demand for an accelerated membership of the wealthy club to how fast it can wean itself off Russian fossil fuels and how best to shape an economic response.

"Nobody entered the European Union overnight," Croatia Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said as talks among the 27 national leaders ended at wee hours on Friday.

The leaders chairman, Charles Michel said in a show of sympathy and moral support: "Ukraine belongs to the European family."

But others made clear Ukraine would not be allowed to join hastily, something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sought and which has some support from Ukraine's neighbors on the EU's eastern flank.

"There is no fast-track process," said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a prominent opponent of EU enlargement, while adding the bloc would continue deepening ties with Kyiv.

PAKISTAN POLICE STORM PARLIAMENT LODGES, ARREST 19 PEOPLE INCLUDING JUI-F MNAS

Pakistan Police stormed the Parliament Lodges and arrested 19 people including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) MNAs Salahuddin Ayubi and Maulana Jamal-ud-Din.

On Thursday, Dawn newspaper reported that the police entered the lodges and conducted an operation inside the Parliament Lodges.

This comes after members of Ansarul Islam, a uniformed volunteer force of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), entered the Parliament Lodges in large numbers.

According to reports, Pakistan's law enforcement agency broke the door of the MNAs' room to make the arrests.

Meanwhile, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has reportedly asked party workers to reach Islamabad and he also reached the lodges accompanied by other lawmakers, Dawn reported.

Fazl earlier took to Twitter to claim that police wanted to "abduct" his party's workers and his volunteers had arrived at the lodges to protect them.

He added that his party wanted to "provide security to the MNAs."

Islamabad Inspector General of Police Muhammad Ahsan Younus took notice of the group's presence inside the lodges.

PAKISTAN CLAIMS INDIAN PROJECTILE FELL IN PAKISTANI TERRITORY

Pakistani armed forces have claimed that an Indian projectile has allegedly fallen in the country's territory.

Sputnik News Agency reported that the projectile was launched from the area close to the city of Sirsa in the Indian state of Haryana and was detected by the Pakistan air force near the city of Mian Channu in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

"At 6:43 p.m. (13:43 GMT) a high-speed flying object was picked up inside Indian territory by air defence operations centre of Pakistan Air Force. From its initial course the object suddenly manoeuvred towards Pakistani territory and violated Pakistan's air space ultimately following near me at Mian Channu at 6:50 p.m. (13:50 GMT)," the Russian news agency quoting a spokesperson for the Pakistani armed forces who were speaking at a briefing reported.

However, India has not yet responded to Pakistan's claims.

IS CONFIRMS DEATH OF ITS LEADER, NAMES NEW CHIEF

ISIS confirmed on Thursday the death of its leader Abu Ibrahim Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi and its spokesperson Abu Hamza Al-Quraishi, and announced Abu Al-Hassan Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi as its new chief.

Quraishi, a religious scholar and soldier in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s army who led IS from the shadows for a little over two years, died in a U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria in February when he detonated a bomb that killed him and family members, the U.S. administration said.

The death of Quraishi, 45, was another crushing blow to IS two years after the violent Sunni Muslim group lost longtime leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a similar raid in 2019.

The group did not deny or confirm the U.S. narrative and the new IS spokesman, Abu Umar al Muhajir, said in a recorded speech on Thursday that Quraishi's last battle was at Ghuwayran prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka.

At least 200 prison inmates and militants as well as 30 security forces died in an Islamic State attack on the jail in January in a bid to free their members, officials have said.

COVID STUDY FINDS 18 MILLION DEATHS, THREE TIMES OFFICIAL TALLY

The pandemic’s death toll may be three times higher than official Covid-19 records suggest, according to a study that found stark differences across countries and regions.

As many as 18.2 million people probably died from Covid in the first two years of the pandemic, researchers found in the first peer-reviewed global estimate of excess deaths. They pointed to a lack of testing and unreliable mortality data to explain the discrepancy with official estimates of roughly 5.9 million deaths.

“At the global level, this is quite the biggest mortality shock since the Spanish flu,” said Christopher J.L. Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, where the study was conducted. Covid drove a 17% jump in deaths worldwide, he said in an interview. The flu pandemic that began in 1918 killed at least 50 million people.

The findings, published in the Lancet medical journal, focused on excess deaths to avoid under-counting and assess the extent of the pandemic’s devastation. While deaths continued to accumulate, the scientists compared the mortality between Jan. 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2021 to comparable data for the prior years.

The evidence suggests the mortality surge is a direct result of Covid-19, the researchers said. But some deaths may also have occurred indirectly, they said, caused by a lack of access to health care and other essential services during the pandemic, or from behavioral shifts that led to suicide or drug abuse.

‘IRAN WON’T ACCEPT CURBS ON ITS DEFENSIVE POWER’

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that Tehran will not bow to pressure to reduce its defensive power, regional presence and progress in nuclear technology, Iranian state media reported.

“Suggestions to reduce our defensive power so as to appease the enemy are nothing more that naive and ill-advised. Over time, these flawed proposals have been rebutted, but if they weren’t, Iran would have now faced great threats,” the top authority said.

“Regional presence gives us strategic depth and more power,” Mr. Khamenei said. “Why should we give it up? Scientific progress in the nuclear field is related to our future needs” he added. Iran also called on the U.S. to drop “unacceptable proposals” in the talks.