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Biden-Putin summit: Awkward conversation looms in Geneva

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  IMAGE COPYRIGHT REUTERS image caption Joe Biden (L) and Vladimir Putin (composite image) Joe Biden said last month that he would be meeting face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin at some point soon. Now we have a date - and a location. The first US-Russia summit of the Biden presidency will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on 16 June. That comes at the tail end of Biden's already scheduled trip to the United Kingdom for the G7 summit and Brussels for a meeting of Nato leaders, giving the president plenty of time to hear from US allies before sitting down with Putin. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in a statement announcing the meeting, said the summit would cover a "full range of pressing issues" as the US seeks to "restore predictability and stability" to its Russian relations. That echoes comments Secretary of State Antony Blinken made during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Iceland last week, as he said Biden

ADVERTISEMENT Belarus plane arrest - is it a first?

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  The forced diversion of a Ryanair passenger plane to Belarus's capital Minsk on Sunday, and the arrest of a dissident journalist on board, have caused outrage elsewhere in Europe. The civilian aircraft was flying from Greece to Lithuania, passing through Belarus's airspace, when Belarus sent a fighter jet to intercept it, claiming there was a bomb threat. The pilots of the Ryanair flight were obliged to follow the instructions of the military plane. The events have been condemned by the EU and the US. But has a similar intercept happened before? What happens with a military jet interception? Who is Roman Protasevich? What further action can the EU take? Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Western countries of hypocrisy,  saying (in Russian)  that nations "had reacted differently to similar events which took place in other countries earlier". She referred particularly to an incident eight years ago involving the plane of Bolivia's then-Pr

Uefa opens proceedings against Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid over European Super League plan

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  Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona have not renounced the ESL Uefa has opened disciplinary proceedings against Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid over their involvement in the proposed European Super League. The clubs were part of the 12 'founding' members of the breakaway league, which later collapsed. The other nine clubs renounced the project but Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid have refused to do so. Uefa said proceedings had been opened against the three "for a potential violation of Uefa's legal framework". In a  statement released on Tuesday,  Uefa said: "Following an investigation conducted by Uefa ethics and disciplinary inspectors in connection with the so-called 'Super League' project, disciplinary proceedings have been opened against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus for a potential violation of Uefa's legal framework. "Further information will be made available in due course." Real Madrid, Barcelona & Juventus d

Israel-Gaza conflict: US moves to rebuild relations with Palestinians

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  IMAGE COPYRIGHT REUTERS image caption Palestinians say more than 1,000 housing and commercial units were destroyed in Israeli strikes The US will seek to rebuild its relations with the Palestinians by reopening its consulate in Jerusalem and providing aid to help rebuild Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says. After meeting President Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Blinken stressed the need to shore up the truce that ended the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas. But he vowed to ensure the militant group that rules Gaza did not benefit. He also reassured Israel of "America's ironclad commitment" to its security. More than 250 people were killed, the vast majority of them in Gaza, in 11 days of fierce fighting that ended on Friday with an Egyptian-brokered truce. media caption Two children from Gaza City and Israel describe their experience of the Israel-Gaza conflict The violence came after weeks of spiralling Israeli-Palestinian tension in occupied East Jerusalem which cu

Samuel E Wright: Tributes paid to actor who voiced crab in The Little Mermaid

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  IMAGE COPYRIGHT GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY image caption Wright sang Under The Sea and Kiss The Girl as The Little Mermaid's Sebastian (right) Tributes have been paid to US actor Samuel E Wright, best known for voicing Sebastian the crab in Disney's The Little Mermaid, who has died at 74. Wright sang the 1989 animation's Oscar-winning song Under The Sea and went on to play Mufasa in the original Broadway production of The Lion King. Other roles included jazz star Dizzy Gillespie in Clint Eastwood's Bird. Disney marked the actor's death with a billboard tribute at The Lion King musical's original New York home.

Dead children washed up on Libya beach, says charity

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  IMAGE COPYRIGHT GETTY IMAGES image caption UN data says 630 people are known to have died trying to cross the central Mediterranean this year alone Images of dead children and women washed up on a beach in Libya have been shared by a Spanish charity. The NGO Proactiva Open Arms received some of the photos from inside Libya and said they are of people who had tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, a dangerous route for migrants. They show the partially clothed bodies of small children and a woman, bloated and half buried in the sand. At least 743 migrants are known to have died in the Mediterranean this year. According to the  data published by UN's International Organization for Migration , there have been 630 recorded deaths in the central Mediterranean alone in 2021, compared with 289 deaths for the whole sea in 2020. "We are in shock," Open Arms head of communications Laura Lanuza told the BBC. "When people try to flee from Libya they shouldn't be taken