A dramatic security scare at last month’s White House press gala has now moved into the courtroom, where a California man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump entered a not guilty plea. Cole Allen, 31, of California, remained silent during the hearing as his lawyer, Tezira Abe, submitted the plea on his behalf. Mr Allen appeared before the court in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. He is charged with four offences tied to the 25 April attack at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at a…

Cheers rang out outside Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison on Thursday as Thailand’s billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra walked free on parole, eight months after a court ordered him to serve prison time he had earlier avoided through an extended stay in hospital. Now 76, the business magnate spent a quarter-century reshaping and dominating Thai politics. Yet his grip on the country’s political landscape has weakened in recent months after his jailing and after his once-powerful Pheu Thai Party suffered its…

A diplomatic logjam that dragged on for months may finally be breaking: the European Union was poised to approve new sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians, with a change of government in Hungary removing a key obstacle. "I expect political agreement on the sanctions on violent settlers, hopefully we will get there," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ahead of a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers. The proposed measures, crafted in response to escalating violence and continued…

A French woman who was aboard a cruise ship struck by a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus and her health is worsening, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said. The woman was one of five French nationals on the vessel who have since returned to Paris. The other four passengers tested negative, though they will be tested again, Ms Rist told France Inter radio. She added that French authorities have so far identified 22 contact cases. In the United States, health officials said one of 17 American citizens…

When the heads of the world’s two most powerful nations sit down together next week, the rest of the globe has reason to watch closely. Whatever China’s Xi Jinping and America’s Donald Trump decide in Beijing could carry consequences far beyond their own borders. The meeting comes amid intensifying debate over which country - China or the United States - will seize the commanding heights of this century’s defining technologies, especially artificial intelligence, and with them a decisive edge in global power. Hardliners in…

Iran has delivered its answer to a US-backed proposal designed to end a war now stretching beyond two months, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. IRNA said the proposal, relayed through mediator Pakistan, is for now centred on one immediate goal: stopping the fighting. People familiar with thinking on both sides have said the latest diplomatic push seeks a temporary memorandum of understanding that would pause the war and reopen traffic through the Strait of Hormuz while negotiators work toward a broader…

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Out of the wreckage of the US-Israel-Iran war, one issue is almost certain to dominate whatever settlement follows: Iran’s nuclear programme. And if a deal does emerge, it is likely to bear a striking resemblance to the accord President Trump abandoned in 2018 — the awkwardly titled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Signed in 2015, the agreement is widely seen as the defining foreign policy achievement of Barack Obama’s second term. It was also detested by Donald Trump, much of the Republican Party and Israeli…

Fresh tension in the Gulf has cast new doubt over US-Iran diplomacy, with Tehran openly questioning Washington’s credibility even as the White House awaits an answer to its latest proposal. US President Donald Trump said yesterday he expected Iran to respond to Washington’s most recent offer for an agreement aimed at prolonging a fragile truce and opening the door to peace talks — “supposedly tonight”. Yet if Pakistani mediators did receive an Iranian reply, no public indication of it emerged. In a call with his Turkish…

Russia’s campaign to tighten its grip on the internet took a sharper turn last month, as the Kremlin moved closer to a long-standing objective: cutting off access to online information beyond the state’s control. Authorities gradually blocked the country’s most widely used messenger app, Telegram, which had previously been used by more than 100 million Russians, after banning WhatsApp in February. Russia had already outlawed many Western websites and news services after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in…