US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had tea with a former jihadist who until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head.

Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, once known by his militant nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, met Trump in Riyadh six months after leading a swift campaign that toppled the half-a-century-old Assad regime, ejecting Iran-backed armed groups and declaring himself leader of the country.

Al Sharaa was placed on the US Specially Designated Global Terrorist list in 2013 for heading al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, known as Al Nusra Front, and allegedly orchestrating suicide bombings across Syria. The Saudi-born former jihadist had spent years fighting US forces in Iraq before moving to Syria to lead an armed Islamist rebellion that ousted the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad.

The meeting, described by Syria as “historic,” was the first between a US and Syrian president in 25 years, taking place during Trump Middle East tour, the first set of state visits of his second term.

Both leaders were seen smiling in photos released by the White House and the Saudi foreign ministry. The Syrian foreign ministry said Trump committed to “standing by Syria at this critical juncture.”

A day earlier, Trump announced the removal of decades-old sanctions on Syria, a move that prompted a 40-second-long applause from the audience, including a standing ovation from the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“Oh, what I do for the Crown Prince,” Trump told the room on Tuesday, crediting the de facto Saudi leader for leading the effort to lift what the president called “brutal and crippling” sanctions. Syria has been designated by the US as a State Sponsor of Terrorism since December 1979.

Syria’s economy has been crippled for years by Western sanctions. Among the harshest is the US’ 2019 Caesar Act, which imposed wide-ranging sanctions that restricted individuals, companies or governments from economic activities assisting Assad’s war effort. The act rendered the entire economy untouchable. According to the World Bank, the country’s economy shrank by more than half between 2010 and 2020.

As of 2022, poverty was affecting 69% of Syria’s population, according to the World Bank. Extreme poverty affected more than one in four Syrians in 2022, the bank said, adding that this number likely deteriorated after a devastating earthquake in February 2023.

Gulf states have been keen to invest in Syria and prop up its economy but have been wary of violating US sanctions. Trump’s move is likely to remove such barriers, making way for potentially billions of dollars in investments.

During the meeting, Trump proposed that Sharaa take a series of measures, including normalization with Israel, expelling foreign and Palestinian “terrorists,” and helping the US to prevent the resurgence of ISIS, according to the White House.

“The fact that he (Trump) did it so publicly and from Riyadh I think is a sort of tacit approval for those who are looking to invest in Syria potentially as well,” Natasha Hall of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said. “(It) means that he is giving wins to Mohammed bin Salman.”

Cautious optimism among Syrians

Fireworks lit up the skies in some of Syria’s biggest cities after Trump announced the lifting of sanctions. Billboards were erected thanking Trump and Prince Mohammed.

“I don’t know how life would be without sanctions,” said Ranim Sakhal, who said she has lived under sanctions since she was born in the 1970s. “The country has been suffocating.”

“People are optimistic and our dream is for Arab countries to help, which is something we haven’t seen for years because of Bashar’s rivalry with Arab leaders,” Sakhal added.

Syria’s currency, the Lira, rose by as much as 27% against the US dollar following the announcement. The country’s economy and trade minister, Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar, shed tears live on air with Saudi outlet Al Arabiya, as he underscored that Syria is “now entering a new phase.”

But the optimism is not universal. The lifting of sanctions would go far in giving legitimacy to Sharaa’s new regime, and some in Syria are concerned about how minorities will be treated by the former jihadists.

“We face a number of extremist groups that restrict freedoms,” he said. “If a guy and a girl are seen together in public, the guy could be detained and just disappear. Men can be beaten for wearing shorts… it’s an extreme infringement on personal freedoms.”

In March, armed men loyal to the new Syrian regime carried out field executions and spoke of purifying the country after a crackdown against remnants of the former Assad regime spiraled into communal killings against the Alawite minority. The United Nations said at the time that entire families, including women and children, were killed during the violence.

An opportunity for Saudi Arabia

For decades, Gulf Arab states were left out of Syria as their rival Iran expanded its influence in the country through its alliance with the Assad regime.

A decade-long civil war in Syria severely strained relations between Damascus and most Arab states, eventually culminating in Syria’s expulsion from the Arab League. Over the past few years, Gulf states began mending fences with the Assad regime and were leading the effort to rehabilitate him until he was abruptly ousted from power in December. Since then, Saudi Arabia and Qatar doubled down on getting the new regime re-integrated into the international community.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan announced on Wednesday that Riyadh will be at the “forefront” of Syria’s economic revival. Its efforts could allow it to become a significant player in the country and expand its influence there for the first time.

“Syria will not be alone. Saudi Arabia… will be at the forefront of the supporters to that economic awakening… (Syria) needs a push, and it will receive that push from its brothers in the region,” bin Farhan said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Saudi Arabia has “geostrategic interests in the Middle East” that can be achieved through support for the current Syrian regime.

“Saudi Arabia wants Syria to be stable, it recognizes that the only way in which you can get to a stable Syria is by providing the current administration with the economic resources and tools to deliver a so-called victory,” he said.

Defying Israel

During the Biden administration, the US and Saudi Arabia were close to reaching a comprehensive security and economic agreement that would have led to the normalization of relations between the kingdom and Israel.

Despite Trump’s desire for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel, no such normalization materialized during his visit to Riyadh. Instead, the president said he would establish ties with Sharaa, a move that defied Israel, which has repeatedly bombed Syria and seized more of its territory since the fall of Assad.

Netanyahu had taken an aggressive stance with Sharaa and his new government. In the days that followed Assad’s ouster, he ordered an unprecedented ground push into Syria, driving Israeli forces deeper into the country than ever before and upending Israel’s 50-year tacit détente with the Assads.

The escalation quickly abandoned Netanyahu’s initial pledge to practice “good neighborliness” to the new Syria. Hundreds of airstrikes targeted the remnants of Assad’s weaponry, particularly its chemical weapons, to prevent them from falling into the hands of militant groups, and Israeli forces seized Mount Hermon, Syria’s highest peak, and a strategically vital position overlooking Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.

“We toppled the Assad regime, which essentially was used as the land link between Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a video statement last week.

After meeting Sharaa on Wednesday, Trump heaped praise on him, calling him a “great young attractive guy,” with a “very strong past” who is “a fighter.” The new Syrian President, he said, has “got a real shot at pulling it together.”

Armed assailants tried to kidnap the daughter and grandson of a French cryptocurrency boss in Paris, police said, in a brazen daytime attack that was caught on camera.

Tuesday morning’s attack in Paris’s 11th district is the latest in a string of violent incidents targeting figures in France’s burgeoning crypto industry.

Four masked men attacked the daughter, her partner and their child in the French capital, police sources told French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Video footage shows three masked men jump out of a white van with branding from the Chronopost delivery company. The woman and her partner fight the attackers and loud screams for help are heard. Speaking to BFMTV, one witness said the assailants tried to “pull a young woman by force” into the waiting vehicle.

The woman can be seen grabbing a gun off one of the masked men and throwing it into the street. The weapon, which was later recovered from the scene, turned out to be a fake, sources told BFMTV.

The screams attract the attention of passersby, who intervene, one of them armed with a fire extinguisher.

“I saw passersby saying to stop. A man went out into the street with a fire extinguisher to try to make these people leave,” a witness told French broadcaster BFMTV.

Eventually the assailants give up, the three men jump back into their van and the fourth suspect – the driver – makes a getaway.

Another woman who witnessed the scene told BFMTV, “I went out into the street and saw this man lying on the ground with a pistol next to him, quite bloody.”

Once the attack was over, the victims were helped by people on the street. All three of them sustained light injuries and were treated in hospital, BFMTV reported. The woman, who according to the news outlet was five months pregnant, was treated for shock, while her partner’s face was covered in blood.

The woman in the footage is the daughter of the CEO and co-founder of Paymium, a French cryptocurrency exchange platform, according to AFP.

Chronopost said that it did not believe the van involved in the attempted kidnapping was from its company, but rather an attempt to mimic its branding. “Noting the absence of vehicle theft within our company fleet and given the non-compliant markings visible on the images of the vehicle used, everything suggests at this stage that we are dealing with an impersonation of our brand,” the company wrote on X.

The attack on Tuesday follows the abductions of other cryptocurrency figures in France.

In January, David Balland, a co-founder of French crypto firm Ledger, had his hand mutilated after he and his wife were kidnapped from their home in central France. They were freed after a police operation. Part of the ransom demanded by the kidnappers was paid, Reuters reported.

France’s Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, announced Wednesday he would hold a meeting with cryptocurrency entrepreneurs to discuss security in light of the spate of attacks, according to AFP.

A Venezuelan toddler who had been kept in US government custody after her parents were deported has been returned to Venezuela.

Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal arrived at the Simón Bolívar International Airport on Wednesday on a repatriation flight from the US.

Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores carried the 2-year-old in her arms as officials announced the girl’s return to reporters gathered at the airport.

“Today we have a great victory,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.

Venezuela had been demanding that the United States return the girl for weeks, accusing US officials of kidnapping her.

The US Department of Homeland Security previously denied the allegation, arguing the family was separated in an attempt to protect Maikelys from her parents, whom they accused without evidence of being part of criminal group Tren de Aragua (TDA).

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky might meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Turkey on Thursday – if the Russian leader decides to show up for a summit that he himself suggested.

The possibility of the two men meeting face-to-face has caused major excitement, but the Kremlin has so far declined to say who is coming to Turkey and Russian officials have spent days preparing justifications and excuses for Putin’s absence.

The talks are unlikely to yield immediate results, and they almost certainly won’t bring the elusive “deal” US President Donald Trump has been promising since returning to the White House in January.

Yet despite the caveats, a direct meeting between Kyiv and Moscow at any level would mark a milestone in the conflict. The two are not known to have held direct talks since soon after Moscow launched its unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Here is what we know.

How did we get to this point?

The talks were first proposed by Putin in response to the ceasefire-or-sanctions ultimatum given to Moscow by Ukraine’s European allies on Saturday, when the leaders of Germany, France, Poland and the United Kingdom demanded that Russia accept a 30-day ceasefire proposal or face a new round of “massive” sanctions.

Putin ignored the ultimatum, proposing instead “direct talks” between Russia and Ukraine.

This was likely a delaying tactic by Putin – something he has successfully deployed several times in the past. But it appears to have backfired.

The Europeans and Ukraine initially said there could be no talks before a ceasefire is agreed, but that quickly changed when US President Donald Trump got involved. In a post on social media, he publicly urged Zelensky to “HAVE THE MEETING, NOW!!!”

Putin wasn’t suggesting a one-on-one with his loathed Ukrainian counterpart. He said he wanted a restart of the talks that took place in the spring of 2022 and were attended by top-level diplomats, but not the leaders themselves.

But Zelensky raised the stakes by announcing he was going to travel to Turkey himself and called on Putin to do the same. The Ukrainian leader made it clear that he would not meet with any other Russian official, arguing that “everything in Russia depends on Putin.”

This has left the Russian leader in bit of a tight spot.

If Putin decides to show up – which most Kremlin watchers think is unlikely – he would undermine his own false narrative that Zelensky and his government are illegitimate.

But if he decides to stay at home, Putin will give Zelensky an opportunity to point out, once again, that Russia is not serious about peace.

This message would be aimed squarely at Trump. Kyiv and its European allies have long said they don’t believe Putin is seriously interested in negotiating peace.

Trump has previously repeatedly expressed his belief in the opposite, although he began expressing his doubts in recent weeks, questioning whether Putin wants peace after speaking to Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in the Vatican last month. The spectacle of Zelensky sitting across the table from an empty chair would likely reinforce this point.

This is also likely the key reason why Zelensky suggested a personal meeting with Putin, who, according to Ukrainian and Western intelligence services, had previously ordered his assassination.

What could be on the table?

The two sides are so far apart that it is unclear what the talks – if they were to happen – would be about.

Zelensky said on Tuesday that anything other than an agreement on an unconditional ceasefire would be a failure.

Putin, meanwhile, said that while Russia does not rule out that “during these talks there will be a possibility to arrange some kind of new truce, a new ceasefire,” the talks will aim to eliminate the “root causes” of the conflict.

The “root causes” he cites include long-held Russian grievances that include the existence of Ukraine – formerly part of the Soviet Union – as a sovereign state, and NATO’s eastward expansion since the end of the Cold War.

Neither is negotiable for Ukraine or its allies.

What happened the last time Ukraine and Russia talked to each other?

The last known direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow took place in Turkey and Belarus in the spring of 2022 – when it became clear that Putin’s initial plan to take over the whole of Ukraine and install a new puppet government in Kyiv within a few days had gone catastrophically wrong.

This left Russia scrambling, trying to achieve its goals through negotiations.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based conflict monitor, said the agreement that was proposed by Moscow called for Ukraine to surrender its sovereignty and would have made Ukraine completely powerless in the face of any future attacks.

Once Ukrainian forces began liberating parts of northern Ukraine, finding clear evidence of massacres and other atrocities as they advanced, the talks started to collapse.

The Russian abuses uncovered in one town in particular – Bucha, just north of Kyiv – horrified the world and hardened the resolve of the Ukrainian people.

If it’s not Putin, who else could be coming?

Shortly after Zelensky challenged the Russian leader to travel to Turkey, the Kremlin started to lay the groundwork for the possibility that Putin might not attend.

“This is pure spectacle, it’s theatrics. Because high-level meetings, especially in such a difficult situation, are absolutely not organized in this way,” the deputy head of Russia’s Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev told Russian state TV station Russia 24 on Monday.

He said negotiators “at an expert-technical level” would attend. Kremlin aide and former Russian ambassador to the US Yuriy Ushakov said the Russian delegation will be determined by the topics that will be discussed, which he said would include “both political and, I would say, a myriad of technical issues.”

The “myriad of technical issues” comment could be an indication that Moscow intends to continue with its strategy of stalling, haggling over every detail and saying no without explicitly saying “no.”

The stakes are higher this time, as both Trump and Ukraine’s European allies said they would impose more sanctions on Moscow if it doesn’t agree to the ceasefire.

What else do we know about the talks?

Not much. The Turkish government said earlier this week that it was prepared to provide “all kinds of support, including mediation and hosting negotiations, to achieve peace” in Ukraine.

Turkey has played the role of the bridge between Moscow and Kyiv in the past, most notably when it brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative which guarantees the safe passage of Ukrainian ships carrying food exports – a rare diplomatic success in the brutal conflict. Russia withdrew from the pact in 2023.

As a NATO member, Turkey is invested in the conflict, but it is also seen as more amenable to Russia, with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously hailing his “special relationship” with Putin.

Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and his foreign envoy, Steve Witkoff, both plan to be in Istanbul for the talks, a senior Trump administration official said on Tuesday, a statement confirmed by another source familiar with the plans.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also in Turkey, attending an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

As of Tuesday, the plan was for the US officials to observe the Turkish-facilitated talks between the Ukrainians and Russians.

Rubio, Kellogg and Witkoff all took part in some of the previous rounds of talks in Saudi Arabia, in which they acted as intermediaries, meeting separately with the Russian delegation and then, a few days later, with the Ukrainians.

This time, the fact that the two delegations might meet face to face is significant – even if their goal is more about satisfying Trump than reaching an actual deal.

Severe wildfires raging in a Siberian region of Russia have engulfed more than 600,000 hectares of forest, local authorities have warned.

In the Eastern Siberian territory of Zabaykalsky Krai, a federal-level state of emergencies has been in place since late April, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Despite huge efforts to tackle wildfire outbreaks in the region, which borders Mongolia, 49 forest fires continue to burn, with a total area exceeding 629,000 hectares, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said Wednesday.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 1.4 million hectares of land have been affected by wildfires, according to figures from Russia’s Federal Agency for Forestry published on Tuesday, about three times the total area affected by fires in the United States and Canada so far this year combined.

Smoke from the fires is seen spreading for hundreds of miles, and forecasts from Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, show the smoke reaching as far as Beijing and the Korean Peninsula by this weekend.

States of emergency have been declared across Russia’s far east Siberian regions since April in response to the wildfires.

On Tuesday, the Russian republic of Buryatia declared a regional-level state of emergency on Tuesday and closed all access to the forests, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Since mid-March, 174 forest fires have blazed in Buryatia, which also borders Mongolia, the region’s forestry agency said according to RIA Novosti. Of those fires, 90% were caused by careless human activity, the agency said.

More than 530 firefighting personnel have been deployed to tackle the blazes, with 22 active fires in the Buryatia region as of Tuesday.

Russia’s wildfire season started earlier than usual this year, with fires recorded as early as mid-March, compared to May in previous years.

Dryer, hotter weather in Russia, exacerbated by climate change, create tinder box conditions that can cause a small fire to spread rapidly.

Across Russia, more than 2,100 forest fires have been recorded this year, official data from Russia’s Federal Aerial Forest Protection Service showed.