Inside a cavernous hangar next to Bogotá’s international airport, military officers are testing a new weapon: a Colombian-made drone that can carry up to 18 pounds of explosives.

“It’s a tactical drone that’s easy for troops to carry but one that also has a lot of firepower,” says Colombian Air Force Col. Andrés Talavera, who is overseeing the test flight.

The drone is the latest salvo in the government’s battle against guerrillas and drug-traffickers. But although unmanned aerial vehicles have become vital weapons in conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East, Colombia is a late comer to drone warfare.

Mark Rutte urged the three BRICS countries to “make the phone call” to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine — or face secondary sanctions from the US.

Ukrainians are tired, run down by the emotional toll of the invasion and the physical toll of sleepless nights due to air raid sirens, explosions and the screeching sounds of attack drones. “It was a long night,” is a common remark you will hear in Kyiv.

So, Donald Trump’s decision to give Russia 50 days to agree to a ceasefire or face “very severe tariffs… at about 100%” has not gone down well.

One of Ukraine’s most prominent politicians, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, asked “why such a delay?” while speaking on German television. Russian attacks had become “more intense”, he said, and more people could be killed in that 50-day period.

France’s prime minister, François Bayrou, has proposed scrapping two public holidays as part of radical measures aimed at reducing the country’s ballooning deficit, boosting its economy and preventing it being “crushed” by debt.

Outlining the 2026 budget on Tuesday, Bayrou suggested Easter Monday and 8 May, when France commemorates Victory Day, marking the end of the second world war, although he said he was open to other options.

The centrist prime minister said: “The entire nation has to work more so that the activity of the country as a whole increases, and so that France’s situation improves. Everyone will have to contribute to the effort.”

France is under pressure to bring its public deficit, running at 5.8% of GDP, under the 3% figure required by EU rules, and to rein in €3.3tn of public debt – on which the annual interest, of €60bn, could soon become its biggest budget outlay.

For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation

Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia to visit his girlfriend last fall. It was one of many trips he had taken to the US, and he was authorized to travel under a visa waiver program that allows tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.

He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody.

From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.

Port of Antwerp-Bruges figures show 15.9% drop in export of cars, vans, trucks and tractors to US

The Port of Antwerp-Bruges has been turned into a giant car park with thousands of cars, vans, trucks and tractors bound for the US sitting idle as manufacturers try to avert the worst of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Figures released by the port show a 15.9% drop in the transport of new passenger cars and vans to the US in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period last year, with a sharp decline emerging in May – one month after the US president announced his “liberation day” tariffs.

Exports of trucks and what they call “high and heavy equipment” is down by almost a third at 31.5%.

The summit was moved from Brussels to Beijing, then reduced to one day from two. As the European Union struggles to curb China’s unfair trade practices, are tougher tactics needed to cut the €400 billion trade deficit?

India’s aviation regulator has ordered the country’s airlines to inspect fuel control switches in Boeing aeroplanes, after their reported involvement in a fatal Air India crash that killed 260 people in June.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the order follows Indian and international airlines already starting to carry out their own checks.

It comes after the US Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday that the fuel control switches in Boeing aeroplanes are safe.

The U.S. government said Monday it is immediately placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.

The European Union has warned that its trade with the United States could be effectively wiped out if Washington makes good on its threat to slap a 30% tariff on goods imported from the bloc.

A tariff of “30%, or anything above 30%… has more or less the same effect. So, practically it prohibits the trade,” Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, said as he arrived ahead of an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Šefčovič said it will “be almost impossible” for the bloc to continue its current level of trade with America if that new tariff rate is implemented on August 1 – the date stipulated by US President Donald Trump in his letter to the EU on Saturday.

Pelicot’s landmark case led to reforms in France’s rape laws after she bravely testified about enduring a decade of sexual abuse.

Gisele Pelicot, the French woman whose courage in publicly testifying about the decade-long sexual abuse she endured made her a symbol of women’s rights in France, has received the country’s highest civilian honor.

Pelicot was named a knight of the Legion of Honor in a list published Sunday, ahead of France’s Bastille Day celebrations.

She joins 588 others on this year’s list.

French president says bloc should be ready for trade war after 30% tariff threat but other EU leaders call for calm

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called on the EU to “defend European interests resolutely” after Donald Trump threatened to impose 30% tariffs on nearly all imports from the EU.

It came as the EU moved to de-escalate tensions after the blunt move by Trump on Saturday. The bloc declared a further pause on €21bn of retaliatory tariffs until 1 August, dovetailing with the US president’s new deal deadline.

At the same time, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Indonesian president, Prabowo Subianto, announced a “political agreement” on a free trade deal on Sunday, ending nine years of negotiations.

Russia’s foreign minister warned the U.S., South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited his country’s ally for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke Saturday at North Korea’s eastern Wonsan city, where he met the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and conveyed greetings from President Vladimir Putin.

Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine.

YouGov survey suggests majority support idea of Britain returning to bloc – but not on same terms it once enjoyed

A decade after MPs voted to hold the referendum that led to Britain leaving the European Union, a poll has found majorities in the bloc’s four largest member states would support the UK rejoining – but not on the same terms it had before.

The YouGov survey of six western European countries, including the UK, also confirms that a clear majority of British voters now back the country rejoining the bloc – but only if it can keep the opt-outs it previously enjoyed.

Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the same conditions it enjoyed when it left, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.

Doubling down on his trade wars, Trump is threatening to raise taxes on many goods from Canada, hike his universal tariff on imports from around the world and punish Brazil for prosecuting his friend, the country’s former president.

On Saturday, Trump announced more tariffs still, this time on two of the United States’ biggest trade partners: the European Union and Mexico, at 30% each.

Former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler said that Trump’s recent moves “underscore the growing unpredictability, incoherence and assertiveness’’ of his trade policies. “It’s hard for trading partners to know where they stand with Trump on any given day and what more may be coming their way when least expected,’’ said Cutler, now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

The head of the French army, General Thierry Burkhard, on Friday said France was Russia’s “main enemy in Europe” as he held a rare press conference ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s annual address to members of the armed forces.

The Élysée said on Thursday that President Emmanuel Macron will make “major announcements” when he gives a planned speech to members of the armed forces in two days’ time.

Burkhard said Russia saw Paris as a primary adversary largely due to French support for Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion. “It was [Vladimir] Putin who said” this, the general added.

Farmers are seeking ways to fend off birds who are stirring up soil in flooded paddy fields in Ferrara province

An unusual bird is ravaging crops and infuriating farmers in north-eastern Italy: the flamingo.

Flamingos are relatively recent arrivals in the area, and have settled into the flooded fields that produce rice for risotto in Ferrara province, between Venice and Ravenna.

The birds aren’t targeting the rice seedlings but use their webbed feet to stir up the soil and snatch molluscs, algae or insects from the shallow water. The rice is collateral damage.

Early investigation into accident in Ahmedabad in June also contains details of pilots discussing the switches

Fuel to both engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have been cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.

Air India flight AI171, bound for London, crashed into a densely populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. It was India’s deadliest air crash in almost three decades.

According to a preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, moments after take-off both the switches in the cockpit that controlled fuel going to the engines had been moved to the “cut-off” position. Moving the fuel switches almost immediately cuts the engine.

Rubio meets Chinese counterpart at gathering, as questions remain about US trade polices and commitment to region

Even as they face among the most punitive tariffs globally, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has sought to reassure south-east Asian countries of Washington’s commitment to the region, saying they may get “better” trade deals than the rest of the world.

In his first official visit to Asia, Rubio met the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Malaysia on Thursday, telling his counterparts that the US had “no intention of abandoning” the region.

His visit came days after Donald Trump renewed his threat to impose severe tariffson many south-east Asian countries if they did not strike deals by 1 August.

Africa’s wealth disparity has reached unprecedented levels, with just four billionaires now holding more wealth than 750 million people combined – half the continent’s population.

According to a report from Oxfam entitled Africa’s Inequality Crisis and the Rise of the Super-Rich, released on Thusday, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, South Africans Johann Rupert and Nicky Oppenheimer and Egyptian businessman Nassef Sawiris control a combined $57.4 billion (€49.07bn).

This staggering concentration of wealth highlights the deepening inequality across the continent, the report warns.

Number of African-born millionaires to skyrocket over next decade: report