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US envoy Witkoff meets Putin in Russia over Ukraine war
United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg to discuss the war in Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Friday that Witkoff and Putin were in the Russian city.
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Why Beijing is not backing down on tariffs
In response to why Beijing is not backing down to Donald Trump on tariffs, the answer is that it doesn’t have to.
China’s leaders would say that they are not inclined to cave in to a bully – something its government has repeatedly labelled the Trump administration as – but it also has a capacity to do this way beyond any other country on Earth.
Before the tariff war kicked in, China did have a massive volume of sales to the US but, to put it into context, this only amounted to 2% of its GDP.
That said, the Communist Party would clearly prefer not to be locked in a trade war with the US at a time when it has been struggling to fix its own considerable economic headaches, after years of a real estate crisis, overblown regional debt and persistent youth unemployment.
However, despite this, the government has told its people that it is in a strong position to resist the attacks from the US.
It also knows its own tariffs are clearly going to hurt US exporters as well.
Trump has been bragging to his supporters that it would be easy to force China into submission by simply hitting the country with tariffs, but this has proven to be misleading in the extreme.
Beijing is not going to surrender.
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UN raises alarm as Israel keeps killing mostly women, children in Gaza
The United Nations has warned that the cumulative effect of Israel’s actions in Gaza is threatening “the future viability of Palestinians as a group”, as the most recent predawn strike killed at least 10 people, including seven children.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, highlighted on Friday “the death, the destruction, the displacement, the denial of access to basic necessities within Gaza and the repeated suggestion that Gazans should leave the territory entirely”.
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UK sends military chief to China for first visit in 10 years
The head of the British armed forces has visited China for the first time in a decade.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin discussed “issues of common concern” with China’s military leaders in Beijing, its defence ministry said in a short statement.
“We agreed that in an unstable world we must play our part as responsible nations with global interests,” Sir Tony wrote on X, “and we reflected on the importance of military-to-military communications”.
The last time a Chief of the Defence Staff visited China was in 2015. Since becoming prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer has sought to strengthen ties with the country.
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US fires Greenland military base chief for ‘undermining’ Vance
The head of the US military base in Greenland has been fired after she reportedly sent an email distancing herself from Vice-President JD Vance’s criticism of Denmark.
The US military’s Space Operations Command said Col Susannah Meyers had been removed from her role at Pituffik Space Base due to a “loss of confidence in her ability to lead”.
Last month, Vance said Denmark had “not done a good job” for Greenlanders and had not spent enough on security while visiting the Danish territory.
The alleged email, released by a military news site, told staff Vance’s comments were “not reflective” of the base. A Pentagon spokesman cited the article, saying “undermining” US leadership was not tolerated.
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Millions told to stay indoors as China braces for strong winds
Workers have been told to hurry home, classes have been suspended and outdoor events have been cancelled as northern China braces for extreme winds this weekend.
Millions have been urged to stay indoors, with some state media outlets warning that people weighing less than 50kg (110lbs) may be “easily blown away”.
Winds reaching 150kph (93mph) are expected to sweep Beijing, Tianjin and other parts of Hebei region from Friday to Sunday, as a cold vortex moves southeast from Mongolia.
For the first time in a decade, Beijing has issued an orange alert for gales – the second-highest in a four-tier weather warning system.
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US top court instructs Trump to return man wrongly deported to El Salvador
The US Supreme Court has instructed the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a mega-jail in El Salvador.
The Trump administration has conceded that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error”, but appealed against a district court’s order to “facilitate and effectuate” his return to the US.
On Thursday, in a 9-0 ruling, Supreme Court judges declined to block the lower court’s order.
That order “requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent”, the justices ruled.
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Trump had five tariff goals – has he achieved any of them?
Donald Trump announced a massive tariff plan last week that would have upended the global economic order as well as long-established trading relationships with America’s allies.
But that plan – or at least a significant part of it – is on ice after the president suspended higher tariffs on most countries for 90 days while leaning into a trade war with China.
So with this partial reversal, is Trump any closer to realising his goals on trade? Here’s a quick look at five of his key ambitions and where they now stand.
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Hudson River helicopter crash kills family of five
Six people, including three children, were killed after a helicopter carrying a family of tourists crashed into the Hudson River in New York, authorities have said.
The family of five was from Spain and the sixth person was the pilot, New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on Thursday. All were onboard the helicopter at the time of the crash, which is under investigation.
“Our hearts go out to the families,” Adamssaid.
Authorities have yet to release the identities, but they were widely named as Agustín Escobar and his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, who were both executives at Siemens, and their children aged 4, 5 and 11.
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Nightclub survivor recalls ‘total chaos’ of ceiling collapse that killed 221
At 01:00 on Tuesday morning Carwin Javie Molleja was dancing with his mother in Santo Domingo’s Jet Set nightclub when he noticed something fall from the ceiling.
At the time, he didn’t think much of it. “No-one thought that because a small stone fell the entire roof was going to collapse,” he says.
The percussionist, who had moved to the Dominican Republic eight years earlier, was out with his mother, Carmin, and friends to see a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez.
It was the first time Carwin, 32, and his mother had seen each other in three years and it was meant to be a night of joy and celebration.
But in the early hours of Tuesday morning, disaster struck.
“What I have in my head are the screams, the loud sound of the ceiling falling in, my mom’s screams asking me if I’m OK, me asking her if she’s OK,” Carwin recalls.
“Everything happened so fast. I guess I closed my eyes and my instinct was to hug my mum.”
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British man’s tattoo wrongly linked to Venezuelan gang in US government document
A tattoo belonging to a man from Derbyshire has appeared in a US government document used to identify members of a notorious Venezuelan gang – despite the man having no connection to the group.
Pete Belton, 44, from Ilkeston says he was shocked to find his forearm featured in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document used to help identify alleged members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a transnational criminal organisation.
“I’m just an average middle-aged man from Derbyshire,” he told BBC Verify.
Mr Belton said it was a “bit strange, bit funny at first” but is now worried the family trip he booked to Miami with his wife and daughter in August might end up “being a six month all-inclusive holiday to Guantanamo”.
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