France’s president is hosting China’s leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees on Tuesday for private meetings after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia’s war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. The mountain meetings come after a grandiose state visit by Xi on Monday that included a ceremonial welcome at the monument housing Napoleon’s tomb and a state dinner at the Elysee Palace with celebrities and magnates.
Across the hills and valleys of the east, Ukrainian artillery units play a cat-and-mouse game with Russian drones hunting high-value artillery weapons such as this self-propelled Panzerhaubitze 2000. Moscow's troops have stepped up ground attacks along the 1,000-km (621-mile) front in the south and east of Ukraine, threatening some of the industrialised Donetsk region's last big cities held by Kyiv more than two years after Russia's full-scale invasion. Counterbattery efforts are crucial to suppressing enemy fire that rains on Ukrainian lines and artillery units, and paves the way for Russian advances.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Pyrenees mountains on Tuesday, for the second day of a trip during which Xi showed little sign of being ready to offer major concessions on trade or foreign policy. Macron, who will greet Xi at the Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees airport at around 11:40 a.m. (0940 GMT), will take him to have lunch in the mountains dear to him as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother. Advisers to the French president described this as breaking with protocol for a chance for one-on-one direct chats with Xi, without scores of aide on either side.
EU countries approved a plan worth 6 billion euros ($6.45 billion) to support Western Balkan states on Tuesday aimed at accelerating reforms and economic growth in the region, as they seek future membership in the bloc. The Council of the European Union said the plan, which covers the period from 2024 to 2027, is expected to provide up to 2 billion euros in grants ($2.15 billion) and 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in loans. Aid is contingent on reforms that would bring Western Balkan economies in line with EU rules.
The killing of the brilliant young AFP journalist Arman Soldin on the front lines in Ukraine one year ago remains a uniquely traumatic event for all of us.The attack killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six other journalists including AFP photographer Christina Assi and video journalist Dylan Collins.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip to Beijing about China's role in helping poor countries with their debt burdens. "It is clear that China, as one of the largest creditors, must play a greater role overall in order to reduce the debt burden of the poorest countries in the long term," said Scholz during a speech at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin.
Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his ballot Tuesday in India's ongoing general election after giving several inflammatory campaign speeches accused of targeting minority Muslims.Modi's brand of Hindu-nationalist politics has made India's 220-million-plus Muslim population increasingly anxious about their future in the country.
Germany sent two warships to the Indo-Pacific region on Tuesday in a bid to strengthen its military presence in the region amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan and over the disputed South China Sea. Those tensions were putting pressure on the freedom of navigation and free passage on trade routes, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said at the northern German navy base in Wilhelmshaven.
Deep inside a protected Indian forest, a Hindu monk cast his ballot on Tuesday, ensuring a 100 percent turnout at the polling station where he is the sole registered voter.Udaseen is the custodian of a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva, sitting deep in the Gir forest next to a stream infested with crocodiles, moving there in 2019 after the death of his predecessor.
Al Jazeera will look to pursue all possible legal action "until the end" to challenge Israel's ban on its operations there, the TV network's news director told AFP in an interview.Speaking on Monday, Al Jazeera English news director Salah Nagm said the network would "follow every legal path", adding: "If there is a possibility of challenging that decision we are going to pursue it until the end."
German prosecutors ordered a search of the Brussels offices of a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Tuesday after an aide was arrested in Germany last month on suspicion of espionage for China. The case of the aide to Maximilian Krah has fueled concern in Europe about being a target for Chinese spying activities. Germany also last month arrested three people over funnelling sensitive technology to China for military purposes.
Talks between Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog have been positive and productive, Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said on Tuesday in a joint news conference with the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Grossi flew to Iran on Monday hoping to bolster oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency of Tehran's atomic activities after various setbacks, but analysts and diplomats say he has limited leverage and must be wary of empty promises.
Biden faces commemorating the biggest massacre of Jewish people at a time when Jewish students on college campuses are feeling unsafe.
In a surprise address to the nation, Russian President Boris Yeltsin announces his resignation and makes Putin, the prime minister he appointed four months earlier, the acting president. May 7, 2000 — After winning election with about 53% of the vote, Putin is inaugurated for his first four-year term. May 11, 2000 — Tax police raid the offices of NTV, a popular independent broadcaster noted for critical coverage of the Kremlin.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a new six-year term on Tuesday at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and a number of other Western countries due to Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin, in power as president or prime minister since 1999, begins his new mandate more than two years after he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, where Russian forces have regained the initiative after a series of reversals and are seeking to advance further in the east. At 71, Putin dominates the domestic political landscape.
Authorities were searching the European parliament office of a prominent German far-right lawmaker in Brussels on Tuesday, Germany’s top prosecutor’s office said. Maximilian Krah, the Alternative for Germany party’s top candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections, has been under scrutiny after an assistant of his was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China. Jian Guo — a German national who had worked for Krah since his election to the European Union legislature in 2019 — has been accused of of working for a Chinese intelligence service and of repeatedly passing on information on negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament in January.
At least two people were killed and another 21 injured in a knife attack in a hospital in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan on Tuesday, state media reported, citing official sources.
A timeline showcasing how presidential politics has intersected with the Middle East, from Oct. 7 through the latest bid for a ceasefire in Gaza.
President Joe Biden is set to issue a forceful condemnation of antisemitism during a Tuesday ceremony to remember victims of the Holocaust at a time when the Hamas attack on Israel and controversy over the war in Gaza have sparked new waves of violence and hateful rhetoric toward Jews. Biden’s remarks at the Capitol will play out as pro-Palestinian protests — some of which have involved antisemitic chants and threats toward Jewish students and supporters of Israel — rock college campuses across the country. Biden has struggled to balance his support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack — the deadliest day for Jews worldwide since the Holocaust — with his efforts to constrain its war on the militant group in Gaza.
Donald Trump’s valet told investigators before the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in 2022 that he randomly chose boxes of documents to return to the National Archives and Trump himself directed that dozens more boxes located at the resort wouldn’t be returned, according to recently unsealed court filings.