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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
Republican President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was not joking about seeking a third presidential term, which is barred by the U.S. Constitution, but that it was too early to think about doing so. Trump, who took office on January 20 for his second, non-consecutive White House term, has made vague allusions to seeking a third one but addressed it directly on Sunday in a telephone interview with NBC News. “No, I’m not joking. I’m not joking,” Trump said, but “it is far too early to think about it.” “There are, there are methods which you could do it,…
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…
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese touted his Labor party’s credentials on affordable healthcare on Saturday, the first full day of campaigning for a general election expected to have cost of living as a central issue. Albanese on Friday called the election for May 3 as his centre-left Labor runs neck-and-neck in opinion polls with the Liberal-National opposition led by Peter Dutton, who has campaigned on a housing crisis that he says is putting home ownership out of reach. After enjoying a healthy lead for much of his term, Albanese’s personal approval ratings are now near those of Dutton, a former…
The Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate a close call that occurred on Friday between a Delta Air Lines flight and a U.S. Air Force jet near Reagan Washington National Airport. Delta Flight 2389, an Airbus A319 headed for Minneapolis, was cleared for takeoff around 3:15 p.m. ET (1915 GMT), while four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talons were inbound to nearby Arlington National Cemetery for a flyover, the FAA said. The Delta jet received a cockpit collision warning alert that another aircraft was nearby, and controllers issued corrective instructions to both aircraft, it said.