Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Russian artillery had damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the front-line city of Kherson, two days after the U.S. announced that each side had agreed to a truce on energy strikes. “Two days ago, there was a night when there were no strikes on the energy sector, today energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson was damaged by Russian artillery,” Zelenskiy said in Paris. “I believe that the U.S. should respond with actions.” The United States announced separate agreements with Kyiv and Moscow on Tuesday to pause attacks in the Black Sea and against each…

Russia will station more military personnel in the Arctic, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Putin said Russia would defend its interests in the region.

The United States will deploy biometric capabilities in partnership with Colombia to help manage migration and disrupt criminal activity, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in Bogota on Thursday. “Today we have signed a statement of intent for biometric cooperation and it will reaffirm our strong and our resilient and our enduring partnership,” Noem said in remarks alongside Colombia foreign minister Laura Sarabia. “We’re going to strengthen our regional security systems and make sure we’re disrupting the movement of threatening actors that perpetuate illegal activity and also facilitate illegal trafficking of migrants.”

Denmark’s prime minister praised the people of Greenland on Thursday for showing resilience in the face of what she called great pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration for Washington to take control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory. Opinion polls have shown that nearly all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States, and in recent weeks anti-American protesters have staged some of the largest demonstrations ever seen on the Arctic island. “The attention is overwhelming and the pressure is great, but it is in times like these that you show what you are made of,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen…

Leaders who gathered in Paris on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine talked about the United Nations playing a possible role in an eventual ceasefire deal with Russia, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said. “During the meeting, the leaders also discussed the importance of effective implementation and monitoring of the ceasefire, on which a possible U.N. role is emerging, in line with the Italian government’s position,” a statement said.

Ukraine’s air defence units shot down 56 of 117 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Wednesday, the air force said. It said 48 drones were lost, in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them.

One of Taiwan’s deputy defence ministers will visit the United States for a ceremony this week marking the completion of a new F-16 fighter jet for the island, the first acknowledged such trip since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. The United States in 2019 approved an $8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the island’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, the largest in Asia, to strengthen its defences in the face of a stepped up threat from China, which views Taiwan as its own. Taiwan has been converting…

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned the United States and Europe on Wednesday against any temptation to “go it alone” on security, amid increased tensions over the future of the transatlantic alliance. U.S. President Donald Trump recently cast doubt on Washington’s willingness to defend NATO allies it deemed were not paying enough for their own defence, triggering alarm among European leaders about the future of the Atlantic alliance as they face up to a more assertive Russia. Speaking at the Warsaw School of Economics, Rutte said the U.S. needed European countries to “step up” on security and that the alliance must…

The European Commission said on Wednesday that Europe should enhance stockpiling of critical equipment and encourage the public to maintain sufficient supplies for at least 72 hours in case of emergencies. The Commission said in its new EU Preparedness Union Strategy that the bloc is preparing for risks such as natural disasters, cyberattacks and geopolitical crises including the possibility of armed aggression against EU countries. “Families living in flood zones should know what to do when the waters rise. Early warning systems can prevent regions hit by wildfires from losing precious time,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said…

Britain’s Prince Harry said he was “in shock” after quitting as a patron of Sentebale, a British charity he set up to help young people with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana, following a row between trustees and the chair of the board. Harry, the younger son of King Charles, co-founded Sentebale in 2006 in honour of his mother Princess Diana nine years after she was killed in a Paris car crash. Sentebale means ‘forget-me-not’ in the local language of Lesotho in southern Africa. Co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, as well as the board of trustees, joined Harry in…