No plans for imminent meeting between Trump and Putin, White House says
US President Donald Trump has no plans to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, "in the near future," a White House official said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine, in cooperation with European allies, has sought a ceasefire along the current front lines of the war with Russia, seeing this as a starting point for any further negotiations and for a final agreement.
The government in Kiev has not changed its position and has supported this proposal since the beginning of talks with Washington.
JD Vance: Gaza ceasefire is going better than we expected
JD Vance and other US envoys expressed optimism Tuesday about the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, calling the progress better than anticipated during a visit to Israel.
Vance acknowledged that there have been outbreaks of violence in recent days, but stressed that the ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10, is working "better than I had expected" after two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
The representatives are in Israel as open questions remain about the long-term peace plan, including whether Hamas will disarm, when and how an international security force will be deployed in Gaza, and who will govern the territory after the war.
Rebuilding Syria is expected to cost $216 billion, according to the World Bank.
Rebuilding Syria after more than a decade of civil war is expected to cost around $216 billion (or 185 billion euros), according to an estimate published Tuesday by the World Bank.
This amount is almost ten times greater than Syria's Gross Domestic Product for 2024.
The conflict has devastated large parts of the country and severely damaged critical infrastructure, including the electricity grid.
The World Bank estimates that the total cost of reconstruction could range from $140 billion to $345 billion, but their most reliable and conservative figure is $216 billion.
Sarkozy becomes first former EU president to go to prison
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has become the first head of a European Union state to end up behind bars.
The 70-year-old appeared on Tuesday morning at La Santé prison in Paris to begin serving a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy linked to the Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy left his apartment in the French capital at around 9:15 a.m., holding the hand of his wife, singer and former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
The couple embraced before he got into a police vehicle that took him to prison, where he will be held in solitary confinement.
