It has played host to countless world leaders and moments in history. Now US President Donald Trump has built a huge cage-fighting arena on the White House’s South Lawn. Cranes lifted giant metal arches into place Tuesday for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event on Trump’s 80th birthday on June 14. “We’re having a big fight. It’s never going to happen again, never happened before,” Trump said at an Oval Office event earlier this month, surrounded by four of the fighters taking...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will stand if a leadership contest is triggered, a senior minister said on Sunday, after media reported Starmer had contacted key backers insisting he would run in any race. This came after popular Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham, who is standing in a key by-election this month, said last week he would participate in any leadership race, although none has yet been triggered. Starmer “has been absolutely clear – were there to be a contest – you need 81...

Pope Leo called for the “disarming” of artificial intelligence in his long-awaited manifesto on the rapidly developing technology on Monday, and warned of “new forms of slavery” behind its rise. The “just war” theory – espoused recently by the Trump administration – was “outdated”, Pope Leo XIV wrote in his first encyclical, which he presented in person at the Vatican, alongside AI experts including the co-founder of US giant Anthropic. The first US pope, who has clashed with the White House...

Colombia’s first-round presidential vote on Sunday triggered a run-off between a pro-Trump showman and a leftist philosopher-turned-senator, after a security-dominated campaign that has been the most violent in over a decade. Colombia’s electoral authority said right-wing hopeful Abelardo de la Espriella won 44 per cent of the vote, beating leftist favourite Ivan Cepeda with 41 per cent and a string of other candidates who trailed far behind. It was a stronger-than-expected showing for...

There is an 80 per cent chance of the warming El Nino phenomenon developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday. “Fuelled by unusually warm ocean waters in the tropical Pacific, El Nino conditions are developing and are set to influence global temperature and rainfall patterns,” the United Nations’ WMO weather and climate agency said. Forecasts from the WMO global network “indicate a pronounced shift...

Video of a dying student who was handcuffed by British police after being stabbed by a Sikh man and falsely accused of racially abusing his murderer sparked outrage on Tuesday, with protesters throwing bricks at police. Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak was heard repeatedly telling officers: “I can’t breathe” in police bodycam footage captured as he lay mortally wounded in December after a night out with his football team members. Far-right figures have seized on the case, including firebrand Tommy...

Canada and Mexico on Tuesday called for a 16-year renewal of the North American free trade agreement with the United States, in hopes of binding the three countries to a pact that US President Donald Trump has openly questioned. The agreement is vital for Canada and Mexico, as the US is their main trading partner and the destination for 75 and 80 per cent of their exports, respectively. In a letter Monday, Ottawa’s minister in charge of Canada-US trade Dominic LeBlanc said: “Canada recommends...

France’s former prime minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday he would run for president next year when Emmanuel Macron steps down, becoming the second prominent centrist to challenge the far-right. “I can’t take this kind of French politics anymore, where it’s just 50 shades of managing decline,” said the 37-year-old, who was France’s youngest prime minister when he served in 2024. He announced his bid under a blazing sun in the southern village of Mur-de-Barrez – the kind of rural area where...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday urged Europe to counter what he termed an “invasion” of its coastline by migration, as he marked the 82nd anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings in northern France. Hegseth also called on European countries to do more to contribute to their defence, in a speech at the American military cemetery in Colleville-sur-mer in Normandy. He was however conspicuously set to skip the main international ceremony marking the anniversary of the landings,...

Franco-Iranian author and film director Marjane Satrapi, renowned for her graphic novel and film Persepolis, has died aged 56, a year after the passing of “the love of her life”, a member of her close circle said on Thursday. “Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” they said in a statement. Born in 1969 in Rasht in northern Iran, Satrapi arrived in France in 1994 and gained French nationality in 2006. An...

Iran’s chief negotiator warned on Sunday the United States was not to be trusted, saying Tehran would not agree to any deal with Washington unless it fully secured Iranian rights. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s remarks came as reports emerged that US President Donald Trump had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Iran, and underlined the rift that the parties still need to close. Any tweaks to the draft could further delay an agreement to formally end the Middle East war and reopen the Strait of...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received the backing of the leaders of the UK, France and Germany in calling for direct ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to a joint statement issued following defence talks in London on Sunday. Zelensky met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at 10 Downing Street for talks as Russia’s war has stretched into its fifth year. The leaders “supported the proposal for...