Melania Trump set to make history at UN Security Council meeting

Melania Trump is poised to make history by presiding over a United Nations Security Council meeting, a significant first for a US first lady.
The event, scheduled for Monday afternoon, will see her take the president’s chair, marking the inaugural instance of a first lady or first gentleman leading such a session, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
With the United States assuming the rotating presidency of the 15-member council for March, Mrs Trump’s office confirmed the meeting would “emphasise education’s role in advancing tolerance and world peace.”
Children in conflict has been a signature issue for Melania Trump, who previously wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of a summit with Donald Trump, an effort that reportedly led to children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war reuniting with their families.
open image in galleryMelania previously wrote to Putin about children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war (AP)This engagement comes amidst ongoing criticizm of..

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Hillary Clinton tells House panel she ‘had no idea’ of Epstein’s crimes

Hillary Clinton tells House panel she 'had no idea' of Epstein's crimes3 hours agoShareSaveJames FitzGeraldandNada Tawfik,North America correspondent, in Chappaqua, New YorkShareSaveWatch: The BBC's Nada Tawfik reports from Chappaqua, New York on Hillary Clinton's closed-door testimony.Hillary Clinton told a congressional panel she “had no idea” about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, as she called for lawmakers to question President Donald Trump under oath about his past association with the late sex offender.
“I want to see the truth come out,” the ex-US secretary of state said after testifying behind closed doors for hours to a congressional committee investigating Epstein.
Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will testify on Friday.
The couple had resisted a subpoena from the panel, dismissing it as politically motivated, before agreeing to testify as potential contempt-of-Congress proceedings loomed against them.
The Clintons and Trump deny wrongdoing..

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Why Trump means the Cuban Revolution faces its biggest threat yet

Why Trump means the Cuban Revolution faces its biggest threat yet4 hours agoShareSaveWill GrantMexico, Central America and Cuba CorrespondentShareSaveBBCA sizeable exhibit in the Museum of the Revolution in Havana is dedicated to conditions in Cuba before the revolution took power in 1959. Inside the ornate former presidential palace, photographs and oral testimony detail the grinding poverty and ingrained corruption of the dictatorship of Cuba's then-military strongman, Fulgencio Batista.
The enduring image is of a woman in a dirt-floored palm-leaf hut cooking with firewood. Similar pictures appear in state museums across the island from the Bay of Pigs to Birán, the birthplace of the father of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro. The inference is clear: the revolutionaries saved Cubans from the ignorance and hardship of life under a Washington-backed de facto leader and led them to dignity, education and true independence.
Yet today, Lisandra Botey identifies more with the impove..

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Four US residents killed, six captured after attempted ‘armed infiltration’ of Cuba, interior ministry says

Four people were killed and six wounded when their Florida-registered speedboat entered Cuban waters on Wednesday, prompting a deadly exchange of gunfire with a patrol boat, the country’s government said, accusing the men of plotting an “armed infiltration.”
The vessel came within one nautical mile of the El Pino channel on Falcones Cay in Villa Clara province on the north coast of Cuba, about 120 miles east of Havana, when it was approached by a vessel carrying five Border Guard Troops, according to the official account.
When the patrol unit asked the occupants to identify themselves, they allegedly opened fire, wounding the commander of the Cuban vessel, prompting the troops to retaliate in kind.
The wounded were evacuated and received medical attention and were subsequently found to be “Cuban residents of the United States” with criminal records.
“Assault rifles, handguns, improvised explosive devices (Molotov cocktails), bulletproof vests, telescopic sights, and camouflage uniforms..

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Ukraine says Russia launched a major aerial attack ahead of Geneva talks with US

Russia launched a barrage of 420 drones and 39 missiles at Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, as U.S. and Ukrainian envoys prepared to hold more talks in Geneva on ending the war that is now in its fifth year.
The nighttime bombardment, which included 11 ballistic missiles, targeted critical infrastructure and residential areas across eight regions of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said. Dozens of people, including children, were injured, officials said, though authorities did not immediately publish a confirmed total.
Zelenskyy said late Wednesday he had spoken by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump and thanked him for his “efforts and engagement” in pursuing peace negotiations.
The U.S.-brokered talks between Moscow and Kyiv are continuing but are deadlocked on the issue of the future of Ukrainian territory that Russia claims as its own.
Trump representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were also discussing nuclear negotiations with Iran in Geneva before..

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Shot in school uniform: BBC reveals police order led to Gen Z protest killings in Nepal

Shot in school uniform: BBC reveals police order led to Gen Z protest killings10 hours agoShareSaveSubina Shrestha,BBC Eye InvestigationsandDeepak Kharel,BBC Eye InvestigationsShareSaveBBCAn order allowing the use of lethal fire against thousands of young, unarmed protesters in Nepal was issued by the country's former police chief, a BBC investigation reveals.
Among the 19 people killed in the capital, Kathmandu, on 8 September last year was a teenager in school uniform, who had been walking away from the crowd when he was shot in the back of the head. Dozens more were injured.
The events at the so-called Gen Z demonstrations – which had followed weeks of simmering anger about political corruption – sparked further protests leading to the resignation of Nepal's prime minister and the collapse of its government a day later.
The BBC World Service team has seen an internal police document detailing events on 8 September. It reveals someone using the call sign “Peter 1” told his ..

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‘Fear is everywhere’: BBC reports from Mexican city turned into war zone by drug cartel feud

'Fear is everywhere': BBC reports from Mexican city turned into war zone by drug cartel feud17 hours agoShareSaveQuentin SommervilleInternational correspondent, in Culiacán, MexicoShareSaveDarren Conway/BBCMembers of the Sinaloa cartel have split into rival factions engaged in a deadly warMexico's president has praised the special forces for “bringing down” the country's most wanted man, drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.
Oseguera, better known as “El Mencho”, died in custody on Sunday, shortly after being captured amid a bloody firefight in Jalisco.
But as the BBC's Quentin Sommerville found in another Mexican cartel hotspot – Culiacán in northern Sinaloa state – the vacuum left by the removal of a powerful cartel leader can trigger a surge in violence as warring factions battle for control.
Darren Conway/BBCAs part of their work, paramedics Julio César Vega and Héctor Torres witness some of the bloody fallout from the violenceWarning: This article contains..

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Trump’s theatrical State of the Union address offers little hint of any change in course

Trump's theatrical State of the Union address offers little hint of any change in courseJust nowShareSaveAnthony ZurcherNorth America correspondent on Capitol HillShareSaveWatch: Partisan divisions and Olympic gold medallists among key moments in Trump addressDonald Trump delivered a combative State of the Union address on Tuesday night that hailed what he said was an American “turnaround for the ages”.
At a time when polls suggest many in the US are dissatisfied with the current state of the nation – and with Trump's leadership of it – the president offered little hint of a change of course.
Instead, with an eye on crucial midterm elections later this year, he delivered a sales pitch to the nation, a patriotic rallying cry to his loyal supporters and taunts for his political opponents.
It was a speech filled with theatrical flourishes – the kind of made-for-the-cameras moments the man who once hosted a reality television show seems to enjoy.
Early on, he welcomed the US Olym..

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Musk cutting Starlink to Russia’s drones has delivered ‘enormous’ boost to Ukraine, says frontline general

Russia’s drone campaign in Ukraine has been cut by up to 40 per cent, allowing Ukraine to regain territory after Elon Musk blocked Russia’s access to his Starlink satellite network, according to one of Ukraine’s most senior army chiefs.
Andrii Biletski, commander of Ukraine Third Corps, says the impact of SpaceX switching off Starlink in areas of Ukraine now held by Russia’s invading forces had been “enormous”.
“After the blocking of Starlink for the Russians, the level of their efficiency compared to ours has sharply decreased because Starlink is practically irreplaceable as a combat communication system,” the brigadier general tells The Independent.
“Starlink can only be replaced with another Starlink. Therefore, the impact of Starlink on the current course of the war is enormous.
“In the last two weeks, there has been a significant deterioration in the effectiveness of Russian strikes, by about 20 to 40 per cent.”
open image in galleryAndrii Biletski, commander of Ukraine Third Cor..

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