President Donald Trump will personally greet Russian President Vladimir Putin with a red-carpet welcome at Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Alaska on Friday, in what the White House is billing as a crucial first step toward ending the war in Ukraine. According to BBC News, two senior administration officials confirmed that Trump is determined to meet Putin on the tarmac upon his arrival. The encounter, the first direct talks between the…

Mali’s military government has announced the arrest of several military officers and civilians, including two generals and an alleged French agent, accusing them of plotting to destabilise the country. Security minister General Daouda Aly Mohammedine confirmed the arrests on national television on Thursday, stating that an investigation was under way and the situation was “completely under control”. According to sources cited by Reuters and AFP earlier this week, dozens of…

The UK’s human rights watchdog has raised concerns over what it described as a potentially “heavy-handed” approach to Gaza protests and has called for clearer guidance for police officers. In a letter to the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, and Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the perception that peaceful protest could attract disproportionate police attention “undermines confidence in our human rights protections”.…

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has faced sharp condemnation after releasing video footage of himself taunting the imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti. The 13-second clip, posted by Ben-Gvir, shows him making threatening remarks to Barghouti during a visit to Ganot prison in central Israel. Standing alongside him was Israel’s prisons minister, Kobi Yaakobi, a political ally. Barghouti, 66, jailed in 2002 for his role in planning killings during the…

Donald Trump has said he believes Vladimir Putin is prepared to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, as the two leaders prepare to meet in Alaska on Friday. His suggestion that Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy could “divvy things up” has raised concerns in Kyiv. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the US president estimated a 75% chance of success for the Alaska talks, suggesting that economic…

Melania Trump has demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, threatening legal action if he fails to do so. Biden, the son of former US President Joe Biden, claimed in an interview earlier this month that Epstein had introduced the  First Lady to Donald Trump. In a letter to Biden, Melania Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, described the remarks as false, defamatory and…

Donald Trump is moving to relax environmental regulations for private space companies, signing an executive order on Wednesday aimed at accelerating the number of rocket launches. The order, titled Enabling competition in the commercial space industry, declares it “imperative” to national security that the private rocket industry increase launches “substantially” by 2030. Under the measure, companies could be allowed to bypass environmental reviews currently required under the US National Environmental…

Lithuanian schoolchildren will be taught how to build and operate drones under a new national programme aimed at strengthening the Baltic state’s resilience against potential future threats from Russia. In a joint initiative announced on Tuesday by the defence and education ministries, more than 22,000 people, including 7,000 children, will learn drone skills as part of a wider effort to “expand civil resistance training”. The scheme will be tailored to…

Authorities in Alaska’s capital, Juneau, are urging residents to evacuate as record floodwaters are expected to surge downstream from a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier. Officials warn the event, driven by climate change and glacial retreat, could be the most severe on record. The annual summer flooding, known as a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), occurs when water trapped by the glacier’s ice dam escapes. This year’s event is…

Elon Musk has threatened to sue Apple on behalf of his artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, accusing the iPhone maker of favouring OpenAI and breaching antitrust regulations in the way it manages rankings in its App Store. The remarks prompted a barbed response from Sam Altman, the OpenAI chief executive, sparking a public spat between the two former business partners on X. “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it…

Stricter US border controls are discouraging European tourists from visiting the country, according to Europe’s largest package holiday operator. Tui’s chief executive, Sebastian Ebel, said there had been a “significant decline” in travel to the United States, citing “the atmosphere, what you hear from border control” among the reasons for the drop. He noted that many European travellers were instead choosing Canada or other long-haul destinations such as Africa and…

The Spanish authorities confirmed the arrival of the seven children, marking the latest in a growing wave of attempts by migrants to enter Ceuta.