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Discussions with the United States President Donald Trump’s team are progressing positively, the Kremlin said on Sunday but cautioned that immediate results are unlikely due to the extensive damage to US-Russia relations under the previous president, Joe Biden.

Trump, who aims to be seen as a peacemaker, has expressed a desire to end the ongoing war in Ukraine, which his administration now frames as a proxy conflict between the US and Russia — a view that aligns with Moscow’s perspective.

Following talks with President Vladimir Putin, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump said on Saturday that discussions aimed at ending the war may be going OK, but “there’s a point at which you just have to either put up or shut up”.

“Everything is going very well,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television’s most prominent Kremlin reporter, Pavel Zarubin, when asked about the differing views of the state of relations between Moscow and Washington.

Contacts were underway at several levels, Peskov said, including via the foreign ministry, intelligence agencies and Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“But, of course, it is impossible to expect any instant results,” Peskov said, citing what he called the damage done to bilateral relations under Biden.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the worst confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis – which is considered to be the time when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war.

As Witkoff held talks with Putin on Friday in the former Russian imperial capital St. Petersburg about the search for a peace deal for Ukraine, Trump told Russia to “get moving”.

Putin was shown on state TV greeting Witkoff, who held his hand to his heart in greeting, at the start of the talks, and state news agencies later said they lasted over four hours.

Asked if a Putin-Trump meeting was getting nearer, the Kremlin’s Peskov said the two powers were “walking along this path together very patiently” but that trying to restore relations took serious and painstaking work.

His words suggested that such a meeting “requires more work, requires more time”.

European leaders and Ukraine describe the 2022 invasion as an imperial-style land grab by Putin, and European leaders have repeatedly demanded that Russia be defeated on the battlefield, although Moscow forces control nearly one-fifth of Ukraine.

Putin casts the war in Ukraine as part of a battle with a declining West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging the NATO military alliance and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine.

WASHINGTON: In one of the first rounds of face-to-face negotiations since his barrage of duties on global imports roiled markets and stoked recession fears, President Donald Trump touted “big progress” in tariff talks with Japan on Wednesday.

Viewing them as a preliminary, fact-finding mission, a sign that Trump wants to keep tight control over negotiations with dozens of countries expected over coming days and weeks, Japan had not expected the president to get involved in Wednesday’s talks.

Tokyo had also been hoping to limit the scope of the talks to trade and investment matters. But announcing his involvement early Wednesday, Trump said thorny issues including the amount Japan pays towards hosting US troops were among discussion topics.

“A Great Honour to have just met with the Japanese Delegation on Trade. Big Progress!” Trump said in a social media message that contained no details of the discussions.

Opposite Trump was Ryosei Akazawa, a close confidant of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba who serves in the relatively junior cabinet position of economic revitalisation minister.

Speaking to reporters after the talks, Akazawa gave few details but said the parties had agreed to hold a second meeting later this month and that Trump had said getting a deal with Japan was a “top priority”.

Exchange rates, which the Trump administration has said Japan and others manipulate to get a trade advantage, were not part of the talks, Akazawa added.

The dollar strengthened against the yen JPY=EBS after his remarks on forex, up around 0.5% on the day. Tokyo denies it manipulates its yen currency lower to get make its exports cheaper.

Akazawa held a 50-minute meeting with Trump at the White House before another session with his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that stretched to almost an hour and a half, according to Japanese readouts of the talks.

Japan’s prime minister, who has previously said he won’t rush to reach a deal and does not plan to make big concessions, sounded a more cautious tone speaking to reporters later in Tokyo.

“Of course, the negotiations will not be easy going forward, but President Trump has stated that he wants to give top priority to the talks with Japan,” Ishiba said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni heads to the White House on Thursday to discuss tariffs imposed on the European Union with Trump, while Bessent has invited South Korea’s finance minister to Washington for talks next week.

The Indian Supreme Court recently upheld the use of Urdu on the signboard of a municipal council building in Maharashtra, in a significant ruling emphasising linguistic and cultural diversity in the country.

A bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran firmly stated that “language is culture” and should not be a cause for division, highlighting Urdu as “the finest specimen of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb or the Hindustani tehzeeb.”

The Indian apex court dismissed a petition filed by a former councillor challenging the use of Urdu on the Patur Municipal Council building’s signboard in the Akola district of Maharashtra, the Indian Express reported.

The bench refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court’s earlier finding that the use of Urdu is not prohibited under the Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act, 2022, or any other existing law.

Writing a judgement for the bench, Dhulia articulated that the court’s views on Urdu and languages in general, urging for a re-evaluation of potential biases.

“Our misconceptions, perhaps even our prejudices against a language, have to be courageously and truthfully tested against the reality, which is this great diversity of our nation: our strength can never be our weakness. Let us make friends with Urdu and every language,” the SC asserted.

The court directly addressed the “misconception that Urdu is alien to India,” firmly stating that “it is a language which was born in this land”.

“Language is not religion. Language does not even represent religion. Language belongs to a community, to a region, to a people; and not to a religion,” Dhulia elaborated.

The court emphasised the primary function of language as a communication, stating: “Before language became a tool for learning, its earliest and primary purpose will always remain communication… The purpose here for the use of Urdu is merely communication.

“All the municipal council wanted to do was to make effective communication. This is the primary purpose of a language, which the Bombay High Court has laid emphasis on.”

Linguistic diversity

The Indian SC went on to underscore the country’s vast linguistic diversity, citing census data from 2001, which recorded 122 major languages and 234 mother tongues, with Urdu being the sixth most spoken scheduled language, present across most of India.

The 2011 Census further increased the number of mother tongues to 270 (considering those with 10,000 speakers), suggesting the actual number could be in thousands.

Addressing the historical context, the court noted that the “prejudice against Urdu stems from the misconception that Urdu is alien to India,” clarifying that Urdu, like Marathi and Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language that developed in India due to the need for inter-cultural communication.

“Over the centuries, it attained… greater refinement and became the language of choice for many acclaimed poets,” the judegement said.

The court also pointed out that the pervasive influence of Urdu in everyday Hindi and even in Indian legal parlance, citing examples like “adalat” (court), “halafnama” (affidavit), and “peshi” (appearance before court), as well as terms used in the top court like “vakalatnama” (document of power of attorney).

It also noted that several Indian states and union territories have adopted Urdu as a second official language.

“When we criticise Urdu, we are in a way also criticising Hindi, as, according to linguists and literary scholars, Urdu and Hindi are not two languages, but one language,” it said.

The court said that “under Article 343 of the Constitution, Hindi is the official language, while the use of English was made permissible for official purposes for a period of 15 years.

“But this does not mean that Hindustani and Urdu have become extinct. This was never the intention of the framers of the Constitution.”

“Even today, the language used by the common people of the country is replete with words of the Urdu language, even if one is not aware of it.”

Ultimately upholding the High Court’s view, the SC bench concluded that for a municipal council aiming to serve its local community, using Urdu on a signboard alongside the official language (Marathi) is a matter of effective communication and should not face objection if a segment of the population is familiar with it.

“Language is a medium for exchange of ideas that brings people holding diverse views and beliefs closer and it should not become a cause of their division,” the bench firmly stated.

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has threatened to revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students if the instituition fails to comply with the President Donald Trump’s administration’s demand for information on some visa holders.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday announced the ultimatum alongside the termination of two grants totalling over $2.7 million.

In a letter to Harvard, Noem cited “illegal and violent activities” reportedly linked to its foreign student visa holders, insisting the university provide the requested records by April 30.

“And if Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students,” Noem said in a statement.

A Harvard spokesperson said the university was aware of Noem’s letter “regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas.”

The spokesperson said the university stood by its statement earlier in the week to “not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights” while saying it will comply with the law.

President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened universities with federal funding cuts over pro-Palestinian campus protests.

The authorities are also attempting to deport some foreign protesters and has revoked hundreds of visas across the country.

“With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos – DHS won’t,” Noem said, adding an “anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology” existed at Harvard.

Harvard has previously said it worked to fight antisemitism and other prejudice on its campus while preserving academic freedoms and the right to protest.

Academic freedom

The Trump administration said late last month it was reviewing $9 billion in federal contracts and grants to Harvard and later called for restrictions — including a mask ban and removal of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes — to be put in place for the university to continue receiving federal money.

Harvard on Monday rejected numerous demands that it said would cede control to the government. The Trump administration subsequently said it was freezing $2.3 billion in funding.

Trump also threatened on Tuesday to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status. CNN reported on Wednesday the US Internal Revenue Service was making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard and that a final decision was expected soon.

Harvard said there was no legal basis to rescind its tax-exempt status, saying such an action will be unprecedented, will diminish its financial aid for students and will lead to abandonment of some critical medical research programmes.

Human rights advocates have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the crackdown by the government.

The Trump administration has frozen or canceled some funding for universities like Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Cornell and Northwestern as well.

It has also threatened to withhold funding over culture war issues such as DEI programmes and transgender policies.

A US judge has threatened contempt proceedings against the Trump administration over its failure to stop deportation flights to El Salvador, defying a court order issued in March, BBC reported. 

More than 200 Venezuelans accused by the White House of gang affiliation were flown to El Salvador using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. However, Judge James Boasberg had placed a 14-day restraining order on deportations under this law.

Despite the order, flights proceeded. Boasberg said the government’s failure to respond adequately to the court’s demands amounted to “wilful disregard”. He said: “None of their responses has been satisfactory.”

While the Supreme Court later upheld the use of the 1798 act, Boasberg clarified this did not excuse the prior non-compliance. He warned contempt charges could be avoided if the administration submits a full explanation and complies with the original order by 23 April.

Should the administration fail to do so, Boasberg indicated he would seek to identify and possibly recommend prosecution for those responsible.

The White House denied any defiance. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the deportations occurred before the judge’s order was issued. “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” she said.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung confirmed plans to appeal: “We plan to seek immediate appellate relief.” He added: “The President is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans.”

Trump criticised Boasberg online, calling him a “troublemaker and agitator” and calling for his removal.

The deportation flights were part of a $6m (£4.6m) agreement with El Salvador. President Nayib Bukele recently met Trump at the White House to discuss expanding the programme.

A Berlin-based doctor is facing charges for the murder of 15 palliative care patients in a chilling case prosecutors say was driven purely by a “lust for murder”, The Guardian reported. 

The 40-year-old, named as Johannes M. by German media, allegedly administered fatal doses of sedatives and muscle relaxants to patients aged between 25 and 94, causing rapid respiratory arrest.

The deaths occurred between September 2021 and July 2024. In several cases, prosecutors allege the doctor attempted to destroy evidence by setting fires in victims’ homes. One fire failed to ignite, and he reportedly called a relative, feigning concern.

On 8 July 2024, he is said to have killed two people just hours apart. In another incident, he called emergency services himself, falsely claiming he had tried to resuscitate the patient.

Initially arrested for manslaughter in four cases, the charges have since grown to 15 murders. “The accused appears to have had no motive… other than the act of killing itself,” said the prosecution.

Authorities are seeking a permanent medical ban and long-term preventative detention for the suspect. An investigation team is reviewing 395 additional cases, with 95 already under preliminary scrutiny.

Twelve bodies have been exhumed so far, five tied to the current charges. Another five exhumations are scheduled.

The case is drawing comparisons to a separate German trial where a nurse is accused of killing nine patients, allegedly to reduce workload and assert control.

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is weighing penalties that would block China’s DeepSeek from buying US technology and is debating barring Americans’ access to its services, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The launch of China’s low-cost AI model, DeepSeek, has rattled the AI ecosystem. The US government has since taken steps to crack down on the Chinese start-up and its support from chip maker Nvidia.

Nvidia’s AI chips have been a key focus of US export controls, as US officials aim to prevent the most advanced chips from being sold to China in an effort to maintain a lead in the AI race.

The Trump administration this week moved to restrict Nvidia’s sale of AI chips to China.

The US House Select Committee on China said in a report that “it has sent a formal letter to Nvidia demanding answers about sales to China and Southeast Asia to examine whether and how its chips ended up powering DeepSeek’s AI models—despite US export restrictions”.

Nvidia warned on Tuesday of a $5.5 billion hit after Washington restricted exports of its H20 AI chip to China. The move to restrict H20 shipments is Trump’s latest effort to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors.

The US has banned exports of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China since 2022, concerned that advanced technologies could be used by China to build up its military capabilities.

DeepSeek, the White House and the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to Reuters‘ requests for comment.