WASHINGTON: The relationship between US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron started simply enough, with a handshake, nearly a decade ago. But even then, there were signs of strain in their relationship — tensions that could be on full display during next week’s G7 summit in France.
JESSORE: Rice farmer Mohammad Ismail Hossain fears violence could blight his quiet fields in southwestern Bangladesh, on the front line of a growing Indian push to expel undocumented migrants. The countries share a porous 4,096-kilometer (2,500-mile) border, with communities on either side often so interwoven that crossings — illegal or not — are common. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India…
BANGKOK: Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, a lawyer and the eldest of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s children, has died at 47, the Bureau of the Royal Household said. She died Thursday evening at a Bangkok hospital where she had been cared for since falling unconscious due to illness three years ago, according to the statement issued Friday.
SEOUL: South Korea’s ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday for sending drones into North Korea, a move prosecutors argued was aimed at creating a pretext for his disastrous martial law declaration in 2024. Special prosecutors said back in April that Yoon’s effort to “fabricate wartime conditions” with the drones had undermined state security. This sentence comes…
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: Europe’s technology chief warned Thursday about the risks of relying too heavily on US tech companies in sensitive areas such as cybersecurity and defense. EU tech sovereignty chief Henna Virkkunen was speaking in Brazil at Web Summit Rio — the Americas’ largest tech summit, which draws over 40,000 participants. She said a push for European digital sovereignty did not imply…
OTTAWA, Ontario: A Toronto police officer was shot and killed Thursday by a suspect in the investigation into a shooting attack that damaged the facade of the US Consulate in the Canadian city in March, police said. One 19-year-old suspect was in custody at a hospital in critical condition while officers searched for a second suspect, who was identified as 19-year-old Zara Jabbi and was considered…
LJUBLJANA: Slovenia’s new conservative-led government on Thursday lifted an arms embargo on Israel and entry bans on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two of his ministers. Last year, Slovenia, then under liberal prime minister Robert Golob, imposed measures against Israel over its war in Gaza. Several other EU members have done the same. But the government of Prime Minister Janez…
WASHINGTON, United States: The US House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a short-term extension of a major warrantless surveillance program, leaving one of Washington’s most powerful intelligence tools on course to expire within hours. The failed vote on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act came after Democrats — and some Republicans — balked at renewing the authority…
TIRANA: Thousands of protesters marched through Albania’s capital on Thursday, the latest in a series of demonstrations against a planned resort linked to the Trump family. For over a week, daily demonstrations have been held in Tirana against the project connected to US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
KYIV: Ukraine’s military said on Thursday that its forces had struck the Afipsky oil refinery in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region as well as sites linked to drone production. A statement issued by the military’s General Staff said a fire had broken out after the refinery was hit overnight. Russian officials in Krasnodar region said a fire caused by falling drone debris had been…