Putin flies to Alaska on Friday at the invitation of Trump in his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Bitcoin hit a record high on Thursday during early Asian trading, surpassing $124,000, driven by favourable US legislation and a rise in US equities.

At least 40 people have died in Sudan’s Darfur region in the country’s worst cholera outbreak in years, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said yesterday.

The Israeli military said yesterday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels claiming responsibility for the attack.

Israeli forces demolished houses in eastern areas of Gaza City yesterday, with aerial and tank fire killing at least 23 people, according to local health authorities, as the Palestinian group Hamas told mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask the Republican-controlled Congress to extend federal control of Washington’s city police force beyond 30 days, escalating his campaign to exert presidential power over the nation’s capital.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers divert international aid by force and other means, block minority communities from receiving aid and may collude with UN officials to seek kickbacks, a US watchdog said.

At least 38 people died and more than 200 were missing following sudden, heavy rain in Indian Kashmir, officials said yesterday, the second such disaster in the Himalayas in a little over a week.

India said yesterday that it hoped relations with the United States would move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests, seeking to temper worries that ties were headed downhill in the aftermath of high tariffs imposed by Washington.

India and China are discussing resuming border trade five years after it was halted, foreign ministry officials on both sides have said, as US tariffs disrupt the global trade order.

Talks to create the world’s first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution are at risk of ending without a deal as countries race to find a potential compromise on the final day of negotiations in Geneva.

Pakistan will create a new force in the military to supervise missile combat capabilities in a conventional conflict, apparently a move to match neighbouring arch-rival India.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the United States was making “sincere efforts” to halt the war in Ukraine and suggested Moscow and Washington could agree a nuclear arms deal as part of a wider effort to strengthen peace.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the creation of the Army Rocket Force late Wednesday

M23 insurgents control one of the planet's largest sources of coltan, a mineral prized by high-tech industries. Dislodging them is a focus of peace talks. It won't be easy.

Fire has affected nearly 440,000 hectares (1,700 square miles) in the eurozone so far in 2025

Russian security services have frequently claimed that Ukraine was using Telegram to recruit people or commit acts of sabotage in Russia.

The heatwave was intensified by the burning of fossil fuels, which release planet-heating carbon emissions, they said.

With such high stakes, all sides were pushing hard in the hours before the meeting.

US President Donald Trump yesterday threatened Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with “very severe consequences” if he does not agree to end the war in Ukraine during their upcoming summit in Alaska.