Ukraine and allies demand 30-day ceasefire, backed by threat of sanctions
Leaders of Western nations including the United States demanded Saturday that Moscow implement an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine starting May 12. If the Kremlin fails to comply, the leaders said they would strengthen sanctions against Russia's banking and energy sectors.
'We together demand this from Russia, we know that the United States supports us in this,' Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
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Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What is Canada's digital services tax — and why does Trump dislike it so much?
In the last few weeks and months, U.S. President Donald Trump has given a number of rationales for escalating the trade dispute between Canada and the United States. On Friday, he zeroed in on Canada's digital services tax — a new levy expected to cost the largest American tech giants billions of dollars in the coming years after it kicks in on Monday. International trade lawyer William Pellerin was only shocked the U.S. president didn't bring it up sooner. "It's actually quite surprising that it took them this long to make a big stink about this issue," Pellerin, who works for McMillan LLP, told CBC News Network on Friday. "If the U.S. was going to take a run at this and really has had a beef with Canada on this issue for a really long time, they really had no choice but to escalate that issue at the last minute now." Here's what you need to know about the tax, which has been a thorn in the side of the Canada-U.S. relationship for years. Canada's digital services tax (DST) affects mega companies that offer digital services — like online advertising or shopping — and earn more than $20 million in revenue from Canadian sources. Giant companies like Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Google, Meta and Uber will be taxed three per cent on the money they make from Canadian users and customers. The levy has been in place since last year, but the first payments are due starting Monday. It's retroactive to 2022, so companies will end up with a $2-billion US bill due by the end of July. Revenue is one big benefit. The Parliamentary Budget Office estimated last year that the tax would bring in more than $7 billion over five years. The Liberals first promised the tax during the federal election in 2019 under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, but it was delayed for years because a number of other nations wanted to work together on one, overarching digital taxation plan that could be applied in multiple countries. As the delays dragged on, Canada went ahead with its own tax plan. Aside from revenue, Ottawa has pitched the DST as a way to bring the tax code up to date and capture revenues earned in Canada by firms located abroad. The United States has been hostile to the tax from the beginning because it largely affects American tech giants. Officials have argued the tax discriminates against American companies and Congress, notoriously divided between Democrats and Republicans, found a moment of common ground in criticizing Canada's plan. The Computer & Communications Industry Association has estimated U.S. companies could pay as much as $1 billion a year in tax if the measure remains on the books. A number of industry experts — from lawyers to cross-border groups and commerce associations — have warned for years that the tax would strain the relationship between Canada and the U.S., with one going so far as to predict in 2023 that the tax alone would be to blame for a trade war. WATCH | Trump says he's ending talks with Canada over DST: Canadian and U.S. business groups, organizations representing U.S. tech giants and American lawmakers all signed letters in recent weeks calling for the tax to be eliminated or paused. But Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the legislation was passed by Parliament, and Canada would be "going ahead" with the tax. Pellerin, the international trade lawyer, said he suspects the federal government will avoid changing its plan because it's taken a strategy of avoiding knee-jerk reactions to Trump's negotiation tactics. "The Trump administration is not known for negotiating quietly in the back rooms or in the hallways of power … so I don't think this is unexpected," he said. Trump says he's pulling back from the bilateral trade discussions because Canada plans to move ahead with its DST on Monday, a move he described online as "a direct and blatant attack on our country." The move put the 30-day deadline to reach an agreement in the trade dispute into doubt. The Biden administration also opposed the tax, but tried to resolve the issue differently: It asked Canada for dispute settlement consultations under the Canada-United States-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA) last August. That consultation period ended in November without the Biden administration taking the case to the next step, but there is no time limit on when the U.S. could pick that plan back up — so the CUSMA route is still available to the current administration if Trump wanted to move away from his current tactic. Yes. France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom all have tax regimes in place, to name a few.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
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Top Ukrainian commander sees new assault on key eastern city
(Reuters) -Ukraine's top commander said on Saturday that his forces faced a new onslaught against a key city on the eastern front of its war against Russia, while Moscow said it was making progress in another sector farther southwest. After their initial failed advance on the capital Kyiv in the first weeks after the February 2022 invasion, Russian troops have focused on capturing all of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The city of Kostiantynivka has been a major target. Ukrainian forces have for months defended the city against fierce assaults, with the regional governor urging remaining residents this week to evacuate as infrastructure breaks down. Top Ukrainian commander Oleksander Syrskyi, writing on Telegram on Saturday, said the area around Kostiantynivka was gripped by heavy fighting. "The enemy is surging towards Kostiantynivka, but apart from sustaining numerous losses, has achieved nothing," Syrskyi said. "The aggressor is trying to break through our defences and advance along three operating sectors." A spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, Viktor Trehubov, told the Ukrinform news agency that Kostiantynivka and the city of Pokrovsk to the west were "the main arena of battles and the Kremlin's strategic ambitions". Syrskyi also said that Ukrainian forces had withstood in the past week a powerful attack near the village of Yablunivka in northeastern Sumy region, where Russian forces have been trying to establish a buffer zone inside the Ukrainian border. Russia's Defence Ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow's forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka -- further southwest, near the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia's slow advance through eastern Ukraine, with Moscow claiming a string of villages day after day, has resulted in destruction of major cities and infrastructure. Moscow has insisted that progress towards a settlement of the 40-month-old war depends on Ukraine recognising Moscow's control over four Ukrainian regions -- Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russian forces control about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, though they do not fully hold any of the four regions. Moscow has said in recent weeks that its troops have made advances in areas adjacent to Dnipropetrovsk region, which lies next to both Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukrainian officials have denied those reports.
Associated Press
20 minutes ago
- Associated Press
A hard-liner follows a fellow right-winger as head of Greece's migration and asylum ministry
Athens, Greece (AP) — A hard-right lawmaker has replaced a fellow right-winger and political heavyweight accused of fraud as migration and asylum minister in Greece's government, a government spokesman announced Saturday. Thanos Plevris, 48, is succeeding Makis Voridis, 60, who resigned Friday to defend himself against allegations that he was possibly involved in an organized fraud scheme to provide farm subsidies to undeserving recipients. The European Public Prosecutor's Office, which has investigated the case, passed on a hefty file to the Greek Parliament that includes allegations of possible involvement of government ministers. Members of Parliament enjoy immunity from prosecution in Greece that can only be lifted by parliamentary vote. In his resignation letter, Voridis denied acting illegally and said he is resigning to clear his name. He noted that during his tenure as agricultural development and foods minister from July 2019 and January 2021, he capped individual subsidies and launched a record number of investigations. His detractors say those very actions are proof that he was aware of the corrupt subsidies system and did nothing to reform it. On Friday, four other lawmakers, three of whom had formerly served as deputy ministers in the Agricultural Policy Ministry, as well as a current deputy minister, also resigned. Their replacements were also announced Saturday by government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis, who added they will be sworn in Monday. No changes are expected to be seen in Greece's tough migration policy under Plevris who, like Voridis and current health minister Adonis Georgiadis, joined the conservative New Democracy in 2012, leaving the right-populist Popular Orthodox Rally, or LAOS. Before LAOS, Voridis had been the leader of the youth wing of the far-right National Political Union, appointed to the post by jailed former dictator George Papadopoulos. He had replaced Nikos Michaloliakos, who went on to found the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party and who is currently serving a prison term for leading what courts termed a 'criminal gang.' Voridis founded his own far-right party, Hellenic Front, and took part in several municipal and national elections between 1994 and 2004. In 2000, he allied himself with Plevris' father Konstantinos, a lawyer, far-right activist and self-styled 'proud fascist.' Voridis joined LAOS in 2006 and has been a lawmaker since 2007. Voridis is considered a political heavyweight and, if not for his far-right and sometimes violent past, he would have been considered a possible conservative leader, politicians and pundits agree. He now describes himself as an economic liberal and a 'non-extreme' nationalist.
