German voters head to the polls on Sunday, with the conservatives the strong favourites after a campaign rocked by a far-right surge and the dramatic return of US President Donald Trump.

One person died and two police officers were seriously injured Saturday in a knife attack in eastern France that President Emmanuel Macron said was an “Islamist terror act”.

Sporting a “Trump Was Right” T-shirt and a “Make America Great Again” cap, Carol Newton was brimming with impatience to see the US president before he addressed a conservative convention near Washington.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “not ready” to sign a deal that would give the United States preferential access to his country’s rare earth minerals, a Ukrainian source said.

Pope Francis, in hospital with pneumonia, is not out of danger and will have to stay at least another week, his doctors said on Friday amid questions over the 88-year-old’s future as head of the Catholic Church.

The US Senate wrangled long into the early hours of Friday morning on a Republican bill to advance US President Donald Trump’s priorities on immigration, energy and defence.

Mexico’s president warned the US her country would never tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty after Washington designated cartels as terrorist organisations.

Marlean Ames said she felt “shocked and hurt and humiliated” when she was denied a promotion and demoted in 2019 with a $40 000 pay cut.

The US national security advisor warned Ukraine’s leader to stop hurling “insults” at Donald Trump, as pressure built on Volodymyr Zelensky to sign away precious mineral rights in exchange for Washington’s help defending against Russia.

Elon Musk has pledged to “fix” X’s fact-checking tool in response to opinion polling that contradicts US President Donald Trump’s claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is deeply unpopular in his country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an “intensive operation against centres of terrorism” in the occupied West Bank, his office said, after three buses exploded in central Israel.

Israel said on Friday that one of the bodies returned from Gaza is not that of Shiri Bibas, as claimed by Hamas, and accused Palestinian “terrorists” of killing her two boys who have become symbols of the hostages’ ordeal.

Volodymyr Zelensky was meeting on Thursday with US envoy Keith Kellogg after Donald Trump branded the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” and said the Russians “have the cards” in any talks to end the war.

New York sued several large e-cigarette manufacturers, distributors and retailers on Thursday, saying they fuelled a youth vaping epidemic by selling products with cartoonish packaging and flavours such as Baja Slushie, Strawberry Cereal Donut Milk and OMG Blow Pop.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that France and its allies agreed Ukraine’s rights and European security concerns should be taken into account in any deal to end the war with Russia, before he heads to Washington next week.

Arab leaders will gather in Saudi Arabia to counter President Donald Trump’s plan for US control of Gaza and the expulsion of its inhabitants, diplomatic and government sources said.

Israel braced for the return of the bodies of infant Kfir Bibas and his 4-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in their 7 October 2023 attack and among the most potent symbols of the trauma inflicted that day.

US President Donald Trump denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator” and warned he had to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the Russians “have the cards” in any negotiation to end the war in Ukraine, after branding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” who refuses to hold elections.

For Maria Elena Veiga, a 60-year-old Cuban housewife living on the outskirts of Havana, charcoal has become the go-to fuel for cooking due to frequent blackouts from the island’s failing power grid.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday said that Ukraine would not be excluded from negotiations to end the war, but success would depend on raising the level of trust between Moscow and Washington.