POLITICS & POLICY

US President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.

Imposing punitive tariffs on countries with high trade surpluses with the United States has been at the heart of US President Donald Trump's economic policy.

New US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arrived for his first meetings at NATO headquarters Wednesday looking to push European nations over support for Ukraine and ramping up military spending.

Russia on Wednesday rejected swapping occupied territory with Kyiv as part of any future peace deal hours after launching a barrage of drones and missiles on Kyiv that killed one person.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt were pushing to resolve a crisis in the Gaza ceasefire Wednesday, a Palestinian source told AFP, after Israel and the United States told Hamas to release hostages this weekend or face a return to war.

US President Donald Trump set a Saturday deadline for all hostages to be released from Gaza, saying that otherwise "all hell" would break out and he would call for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to be canceled.

North Korea has given Russia 200 long-range artillery pieces, a South Korean defence ministry official told AFP on Tuesday, as Moscow and Pyongyang deepen their military ties.

Hamas announced Monday it would postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges under a fragile Gaza ceasefire accusing Israel of violations, while Israel said its military was readying for "any possible scenario".

Trump's decision to introduce 25% tariffs caused a drop of AU$15 billion on the ASX, with the ASX200 falling 0.5% during early trading.

Ecuador's closer-than-expected presidential election is likely headed for an April runoff between two very different candidates who have faced each other three times already.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti's ruling party appeared set to secure the most seats in Kosovo's parliamentary elections Sunday but it remained uncertain whether the incumbent stood a chance of forming a majority government.

US President Donald Trump said in remarks aired Sunday that Elon Musk, who is presiding over a purge of government jobs, will help find "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud" in federal agencies.

Some 14 million Ecuadorans began voting under tight security Sunday, choosing who will lead their violence-wracked Andean nation through its worst crisis in half a century.

She says she was violated by police. In Peaches' case, she said she was forced to give two police officers "services for free" to evade arrest for prostitution.

Britain's newest reality TV show has been slammed as "insensitive", "voyeuristic" and even "nauseating" for recreating with six Britons the often fatal journeys made by thousands of refugees to the UK. Bluntly titled "Go Back to Where You Came From", the part-documentary, part-reality TV show by Channel 4 follows the group of six, who hold strong views both for and against immigration.

Mykhailo received a flurry of messages when US President Donald Trump suspended international aid, a move that endangered the NGO where he works helping Ukrainian veterans.

Mehdi al-Shayesh thought he would quickly resettle in his central Syrian home town after Bashar al-Assad was ousted, but like many others stuck in camps, he found his home uninhabitable.

US President Donald Trump said Friday he would "probably" meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky next week, as Russia said its forces had seized the key mining town of Toretsk in east Ukraine.

President Donald Trump on Friday called for USAID to be shuttered, escalating his unprecedented campaign to dismantle the humanitarian agency.

A senior US official visiting Beirut warned on Friday against any Hezbollah presence in Lebanon's new government, saying the Iran-backed group was "defeated" in its war with Israel.

Taiwan detected six Chinese balloons off the island, the defence ministry said Friday, as Beijing maintains military pressure to push its claim of sovereignty.

Germany logged a record trade surplus with the United States last year, data showed Friday, news that could stoke tensions with US President Donald Trump as he threatens the EU with tariffs.

Russia reported strong economic growth for 2024 on Friday as record spending on the military offensive against Ukraine outweighed the impact of Western sanctions.

A judge on Thursday suspended a scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit through a mass buyout.

Making his debut as the top US diplomat, Marco Rubio has conducted most business entirely in Spanish, forging quick bonds with Latin American leaders.

Cocaine "is no worse than whisky" and is only illegal because it comes from Latin America, said Colombian President Gustavo Petro during a live broadcast of a government meeting.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's sports, in his latest move targeting transgender people since returning to office.

At first glance, it's a happy image -- hundreds of smiling faces torn from newspapers and pasted into a frame.

Israel's defence minister ordered the army on Thursday to start making preparations to allow for "voluntary" departures from the Gaza Strip, after US President Donald Trump floated a proposal to move Palestinians out of the territory.