US President Donald Trump has praised talks held with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the US-proposed ceasefire deal in Ukraine as “good and productive”. This comes after Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow on Thursday evening, during which they exchanged information and shared the US’s “cautious optimism” over a peace process, the … Read more
Angola is under fire after it denied entry to several senior African political figures set to attend a conference hosted by the country’s main opposition party. Unita said it had invited the politicians, including Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, Mozambique’s Venancio Mondlane and Botswana’s former President Ian Khama, to a summit on democracy. “The action … Read more
Tariff threats. Growing uncertainty about the economy. And a push for much lower oil prices. For all of their bravado about U.S. energy dominance and enthusiasm for deregulation, American energy executives are beginning to worry about President Trump’s agenda. Their concerns crept into conversations in hotel meeting rooms and over private meals this week in … Read more
Legendary avant-garde composer Sofia Gubaidulina has died in Germany, where she spent more than 30 years of her life after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Gubaidulina, who was 93, was one of a group of composers blacklisted in the Soviet Union in 1979. But her work eventually reached the West, where she was feted … Read more
Video footage captured audience members booing when the vice president and his wife took their seats for a National Symphony Orchestra concert at the Kennedy Center. In February, President Trump named himself chairman of the venue replacing some board members with his own appointees including the vice president’s wife, Usha Vance.
Two US judges have ordered several federal government agencies to reinstate the jobs of probationary employees fired en masse by the Trump administration last month. In California, District Judge William Alsup called the sacking of these employees part of a “sham” strategy that aimed to circumvent proper procedures for reducing the federal workforce. His order … Read more
EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Red alerts for flooding and landslides were issued for parts of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna Flooding and landslides have been reported in parts of northern Italy amid red weather alerts affecting cities including Florence and Pisa. Torrential rain prompted the alert for parts of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, with heavy and persistent rainfall expected into the … Read more
A Russian national has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Finnish court for committing war crimes in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Voislav Torden, 38, a senior member of the Russian far-right mercenary group Rusich, was found guilty of four charges by a court in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, on Friday, while he was acquitted … Read more
Mark Carney, an economist and political newcomer, will be sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister on Friday, just days after being elected leader of the governing Liberal Party. In his previous roles as governor of the Bank of Canada, the country’s central bank, and of the Bank of England, Carney previously helped both countries … Read more
Sudan has suspended all imports from Kenya in protest after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are fighting the army in a two-year civil war, were hosted in Nairobi. Last month, the RSF and its allied political and armed groups signed a founding charter in Kenya expressing the intention to form a parallel government … Read more