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Putin praises Trump, says Russia is ready for dialogue

Putin said remarks Trump had made during the election campaign about Ukraine and restoring relations with Russia deserved attention.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on winning the U.S. election, praised him for showing courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him, and said Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect.

In his first public remarks since Trump’s win, Putin said Trump had acted like a real man during an assassination attempt on him while he was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July, Reuters reported.

“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man,” Putin said at the Valdai discussion club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. “I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election.”

Putin said remarks Trump had made during the election campaign about Ukraine and restoring relations with Russia deserved attention.

“What was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to bring about the end of the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion this deserves attention at least,” said Putin.

Trump said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours if elected, but has given few details on how he would seek to end the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.

The 72-year-old Kremlin chief gave just one note of caution: “I do not know what is going to happen now. I have no clue.”

When pressed by a questioner what he would do if Trump called to suggest a meeting, Putin said he was ready to resume contacts if a Trump administration wanted that, and was ready for discussions with Trump.

Russia and Trump have repeatedly dismissed as nonsense some claims in Western media that Trump was a sort of Russian agent of influence. Russian officials say that during his first term, from 2017 to 2021, Trump was tough on Russia.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigated allegations of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but said in a 2019 report that he found no evidence of conspiracy.

Moscow has also repeatedly denied U.S. assertions that Russia meddled in the 2024 and other presidential elections and had spread disinformation in an attempt to sow chaos.

WAR?

The 2-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final – most dangerous – phase after Moscow’s forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of the conflict and the West ponders how the war will end.

Putin on June 14 set out his terms for an end to the war: Ukraine would have to drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from all of the territory of four regions claimed by Russia.

Russia controls Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, about 80% of the Donbas – a coal-and-steel zone comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and more than 70% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Speaking for several hours on Thursday, Putin railed against the “adventurism” of Western leaders whom he accused of pushing the world to a “dangerous line” by seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine.

“It is useless to put pressure on us. But we are always ready to negotiate with full consideration of mutual legitimate interests,” Putin said, just seconds after scolding the West for promising Ukraine and Georgia eventual NATO membership in 2008.

He said that the West had never accepted Russia as an equal partner since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, treating it as a defeated power and enlarging the U.S.-led NATO military alliance eastwards towards Russia.

Russia, Putin said, was ready to restore relations with the United States but the ball was in Washington’s court. Putin also said that China was Russia’s “ally”.

Asked about Kamala Harris’ warning that Putin would eat Trump for lunch, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said with a chuckle: “Putin does not eat people.”

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Trump took secret flight out of Turkey due to Iran threat, the Washington Post reports

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

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U.S. President Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard Air Force One, an extraordinary move prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington ​Post reported Monday.

Trump had taken the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but he unexpectedly used ‌an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane’s security, Reuters reported.

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

Before departing Ankara, Trump said on Truth ​Social that he would use an older baby blue Air Force One plane “for old time’s sake” to RAF Mildenhall in Britain while ​the new plane stopped at the same base so U.S. service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.

After Trump ⁠boarded the old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, he was secretly shuttled by an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, ​an Air Force C-32A, the Post reported citing a U.S. official familiar with the operation and corroborating material it reviewed.

The deception operation was triggered by ​a credible threat to Trump, the Post reported. A similar operation had taken place in 2000, when President Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan while sending his formal Air Force One as decoy.

On this occasion, the journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One, which was effectively ​used as a decoy, reported being advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed. The Post said aside from reporters, some ​White House staff also believed that the president was on board.

When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said ‌it was ⁠because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.” He went onto say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”

The C-32A carrying Trump flew to Britain and arrived at around 10:20 p.m. while the older Air Force One and media, arriving minutes later, the Post reported. It was not clear, the paper said, how Trump was moved from the C-32A back to the older Air Force One.

Trump’s traveling press pool reported he climbed down the stairs of the ​older Air Force One at 10:56 p.m. ​UK local time.

He gave press ⁠a peace sign but didn’t walk over to talk to them. He then spent some time greeting service members before walking to the new, Qatar-donated plane.

When asked for comment on the revelation of a secret flight on a ​third plane, the White House provided a statement from Communications Director Steve Cheung saying the Qatari-donated jet ​has been fitted with ⁠high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said. It was the same statement provided to the Post.

The ⁠Pentagon did ​not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new plane, with red, white, dark blue ​and gold livery chosen by Trump, is a Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar last year and refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies. It was intended to serve ​as a temporary placement while Boeing (BA.N) struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.

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More than 100 killed after strongest quake this century hits western Colombia

The U.S. Geological Survey said the ⁠7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.

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More than 100 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, toppling buildings, damaging hospitals and infrastructure and trapping people beneath the rubble in the country’s strongest earthquake this century.

The quake struck just ​days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June, Reuters reported.

“The ‌national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed,” he said in a national address around 1 p.m. local time, upon declaring a national state of emergency and giving a death toll of 111. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble.”

De La Espriella visited Quibdo, the capital of coastal Choco province, where he promised rent subsidies for those who have lost homes, and then traveled to Cali, western Colombia’s largest city.

Though he had ​been expected to give an updated national death toll on Monday evening, De La Espriella offered only figures for Valle del Cauca province, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there, while ​700 had been injured. Some local media have cited a national total of 132 deaths, though the origin of the figure is unclear.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the ⁠7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.

As night fell, rescue workers and volunteers with headlamps hurried to ​find people still trapped under rubble.

Authorities in Cali, Armenia and Manizales announced curfews, with Cali’s mayor saying threats of looting had forced him to deploy police and military personnel to the streets. De La Espriella promised 1,000 additional ​security personnel for the city.

Cali authorities said the Petronio Alvarez festival, an annual celebration of Pacific music which was due to start on Wednesday, has been postponed.

Video broadcast by Caracol Television showed a group of people pulling a small baby covered in dust from under a pile of rubble. Caracol reported the six-month-old girl and her mother were rescued from under a five-story building in Cali.

Video from Cali also showed rescue workers rappelling people out from the windows of a local hospital.

BUILDINGS CRUMBLE, AIRPORTS CLOSED

In the hard-hit ​city of Pereira, rescue workers told local television they were in contact with a young boy trapped under a bakery, and crane operators were working to remove badly damaged parts of buildings.

A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during ​the quake, according to Reuters-verified video, while footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city’s landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.

Reuters video showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveling debris by hand and ‌loading rubble into ⁠trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.

Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building. As he spoke to Reuters, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.

“They are alive,” he said. “We are making space so we can free them and get them out.”

Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident and rescue volunteer, said her group had helped seven people out of a fallen building but there were still four people and a dog trapped underneath.

“A moment ago there was scratching ​but now we can’t hear anything, we still have ​faith that the dog is alive and we ⁠can get these people out,” she said. “The more people lending a hand the better.”

Saul Paz, 69, a resident of a Cali residential complex that partially collapsed, told Reuters he had been in the dining room with his son and wife when the shaking began.

“I think if it had lasted five seconds more there would be nothing left,” ​he said. “There are people who went to bed last night with a house and a car and today they won’t have anything.”

Colombia’s civil aviation authority suspended operations ​at several airports in the ⁠region, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, while engineers carried out structural inspections.

RING OF FIRE

Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and records thousands of mostly minor earthquakes each month.

Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake’s powerful magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.

“This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn’t cause as much shaking. At this magnitude, it did ⁠actually cause a ​lot of shaking,” she said, adding Colombia is particularly difficult for seismologists to analyze due to the interaction of several major tectonic plates.

The ​Colombian Geological Service said it had recorded 21 aftershocks by late Monday and warned that additional tremors were likely.

Colombia’s coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly around Armenia and Pereira.

 

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Fire at Saudi factory kills 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers

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A major fire at a sofa manufacturing factory ​in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, ‌killed 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers, officials in Dhaka said on Monday.

The ​fire broke out on ​Sunday in the Musa Sanaiya industrial ⁠area, Reuters reported.

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign ​Affairs is monitoring the situation, ​while officials from the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh are working with Saudi authorities ​to complete the repatriation formalities.

​Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful ‌Haque ⁠Choudhury has instructed officials to bring back the bodies as soon as possible and ensure ​necessary government ​assistance and ⁠compensation for the bereaved families.

With around 3.5 ​million Bangladeshis living in ​Saudi ⁠Arabia, the country remains the largest destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, ⁠who ​sent home more ​than $2.7 billion in remittances last year.

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