Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin was open to normalising relations with Finland, which his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said were in a “sad state,” if Helsinki wanted to rebuild ties. Finnish President Alexander Stubb told his British counterpart Keir Starmer on Monday that Helsinki needs to “mentally prepare” for the restoration of ties with Russia. Finland, which shares a 1,300-km (800-mile) border with Russia, joined the NATO military alliance in 2023, which Moscow cast at the time as a dangerous historic mistake.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and discussed topics including military progress against Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis and possible solutions in Gaza. Trump said the call went very well.
Ukraine will work with the United States towards a mutually acceptable text of a minerals deal that the two countries can sign, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Tuesday. Sybiha told a press conference that one round of consultations had already taken place on a new draft of the minerals deal and that an agreement providing for a strong American business presence in Ukraine would contribute to his country’s security infrastructure.
Ukraine will hold in-depth talks on Friday with a small group of foreign countries about contributing forces to a contingent that would act as a security guarantee for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday. The Ukrainian leader told a news conference with Germany’s foreign minister that he was awaiting “more concrete” answers from Kyiv’s allies on their readiness to participate in such a force, an initiative Russia strongly opposes. “As far as the matter of a contingent goes, we will have a meeting on Friday. It will be a meeting of our military teams, several countries, a narrow circle…
Hard-right opposition leader George Simion led an opinion poll published on Monday, five weeks before the first round of a repeat presidential election that could determine whether Romania remains on its pro-Western course. The European Union and NATO member which borders Ukraine will repeat the two-round election on May 4 and 18 after the Constitutional Court voided the initial ballot in December following accusations of Russian meddling, which Moscow denied. With the cancelled election’s far-right frontrunner banned from running again, ultranationalists have regrouped around Simion, leader of the opposition Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), Romania’s second-largest party. An opinion poll…
Lithuania said on Monday rescuers have recovered the armoured vehicle of four missing U.S. soldiers that last week sunk in a peat bog in a military training area in the Baltic country, not mentioning the soldiers. The defence ministry said Lithuanian military police and U.S. investigators are still at work at the site. The soldiers and their vehicle went missing at the Pabrade training ground near the border with Belarus. “We will remain patient and focused as they gather more information about the situation,” it said on social media platform X. A large search and rescue operation was launched on…
Britain’s King Charles is returning to public duties this week after he was briefly taken to hospital last Thursday when he experienced side effects from his cancer treatment, a royal source said on Monday. The 76-year-old king has been undergoing treatment since he was diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer in February last year following tests after a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate. However, he suffered what sources described as a “minor bump in the road” which meant he was taken to hospital for a short period of observation on Thursday, with the result he was forced to…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Sunday to step up pressure on Hamas in Gaza while continuing negotiations to secure the release of hostages and working to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s “voluntary emigration” plan. He said the cabinet had agreed to increase pressure on Hamas, which says it has agreed to a ceasefire proposal from the mediators Egypt and Qatar. Netanyahu rejected assertions that Israel, which has resumed its bombardment of Gaza after a two-month truce and sent troops back into the enclave, was not negotiating, saying “we are conducting it under fire, and therefore it is also…
Europe wants to cooperate with the United States but the EU is ready to respond as one if Washington leaves it no choice by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday. Speaking at the opening of the Hanover industrial trade fair which this year has Canada as its partner country, Scholz also insisted that Canada is an independent country. U.S. President Donald Trump has mused about annexing Canada and referred to the country as the 51st U.S. state. “We stand by your side!” Scholz said, adding: “Canada is not a state that belongs to…
A magnitude 7 earthquake struck Tonga on Sunday, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said. The quake was at a depth of 16 km (10 miles), GFZ said. GFZ had earlier pegged the earthquake at 6.6. Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within 300 km of the epicenter along the coasts of Tonga, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System said. Tonga is a Polynesian kingdom of more than 170 South Pacific islands.