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The two sworn enemies went to war twice over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan eventually captured in 2023
US president Donald Trump announced he will host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday for what he called a “Historic Peace Summit” aimed at ending decades of hostilities between the two former Soviet republics.
Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and president Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan “will join me at the White House for an official Peace Signing Ceremony,” Trump posted Thursday on his Truth Social platform.
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Nicolás Maduro was indicted in 2020 on federal charges of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine
The Trump administration is doubling to $50m a reward for the arrest of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narcotraffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said on Thursday in a video statement announcing the reward.
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US president contradicts reports Putin meeting Zelenskyy was a precondition of a US-Russia summit
Donald Trump has said he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin despite the Russian leader’s refusal to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy – dispelling speculation that direct talks between the two warring presidents were a precondition to a high-level US-Russia summit.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said that Putin did not have to meet with Zelenskyy first before the US and Russian presidents could meet.
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Summit with Russian leader would follow ‘great progress’ made by special envoy Steve Witkoff during Moscow visit
Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin as soon as next week to discuss the war in Ukraine, White House officials have said, although senior aides warned that serious “impediments” remain to achieving a ceasefire.
Late on Wednesday, the US president told reporters at the White House, when asked when he would meet the leaders of Ukraine and Russia: “There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon.” Trump said there had been no specific breakthrough leading to talk of a meeting but that US officials had been working on it for “a long time”.
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Clock ticking to secondary sanctions on Friday; majority still trust Zelenskyy but rating down after anti-corruption debacle. What we know on day 1,261
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia seemed “more inclined to a ceasefire” after a visit to Moscow on Wednesday by a US envoy. “The pressure on them works. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details – neither us nor the US,” Ukraine’s president said in his nightly address.
Despite the engagement, sanctions targeting Russian oil “are still expected to be implemented on Friday”, a senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. Separately, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said he did not want to exaggerate the progress made during Steve Witkoff’s talks with Putin. Many “impediments” remained, especially Russia’s territorial claims, and there was no concrete proposal for a ceasefire. There have been unconfirmed reports that the Kremlin could propose a halt to long-range strikes by both ..

State department condemns judge’s decision to place former Brazil president under house arrest as trial proceeds
The US has intensified its campaign to help Jair Bolsonaro avoid punishment for allegedly masterminding a failed coup, with the state department denouncing the decision to place Brazil’s former president under house arrest.
“Let Bolsonaro speak!” the department’s bureau of western hemisphere affairs tweeted on Monday night after the far-right populist was confined to his mansion in the capital, Brasília, and police seized his mobile phone.
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Hundreds of people gathered in New York to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and demand that the Trump administration put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The protest, organised by IfNotNow, a Jewish-American anti-occupation group, began at Columbus Circle and ended outside the Trump International hotel, where several people were arrested for blocking the road. Palestinian officials have said 175 people have died from hunger in Gaza since the beginning of the war, 93 of them children
More than 40 arrested at protest against Gaza war at Trump hotel in New York
House Democrats sign letter urging Trump to recognise Palestinian statehood
Israeli forces kill at least 27 at food site while minister’s al-Aqsa visit causes outrage
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Draft backed by over a dozen Democrats says Palestinian rights ‘as a people and nation’ must be urgently upheld
More than a dozen Democratic members of Congress have signed on to a letter that urges the Trump administration to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a draft copy shared with the Guardian.
Congressman Ro Khanna of California is leading the letter addressed to the president and secretary of state Marco Rubio, and is joined by several House progressives, including Greg Casar of Texas, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Maxwell Frost of Florida.
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Palestinian foreign ministry condemns Republican visit for ‘undermining efforts to stop the war and cycle of violence’
Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza.
The excursion followed Johnson’s arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar.
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Steve Witkoff to travel to Moscow before US president’s Friday deadline after which new sanctions could be imposed
Donald Trump’s special envoy is expected in Moscow days before the US president’s deadline on Friday for Russia to make progress on ending the war in Ukraine or face increased US sanctions.
Trump said Steve Witkoff would visit Moscow on Wednesday or Thursday. When asked what message Witkoff would take to Russia and what Vladimir Putin could do to avoid new sanctions, the US president answered: “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”
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