AFP USA

G7 leaders on Monday called for “de-escalation” in the Middle East starting with the Israel-Iran conflict, as US President Donald Trump hastily left the group’s summit.Trump, who was making his return to the international diplomatic calendar, departed the gathering in the Canadian Rockies a day early as ally Israel pounded Iran.After a day of statements backing diplomacy, Trump ominously took to social media to sound a warning to people in the Iranian capital, whose population is nearly 10 million.”Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.Having earlier hesitated at backing a joint statement on the crisis, Trump relented during a dinner at a forested lodge under the snow-capped mountains in Kananaskis.”We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza,” said the joint statement released by Canada.The statement said that Israel “has a right to defend itself” and stressed “the importance of the protection of civilians,” as the growing attacks kill civilians on both sides.The leaders of the club of industrial democracies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — stated their conviction that Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon.”Trump for weeks said he favored diplomacy, and his envoy Steve Witkoff met five times with Iranian envoys, but he quickly backed Israel’s strikes and said that Tehran’s clerical state should have agreed to his terms.At a group photo with fellow G7 leaders before the dinner, Trump said: “I have to be back as soon as I can. I wish I could stay for tomorrow, but they understand, this is big stuff.”French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that the United States was ready to make a diplomatic overture.”There was an offer made for a meeting and an exchange,” Macron told reporters.Trump told reporters before his decision was announced to leave early: “As soon as I leave here, we’re going to be doing something.”He has repeatedly declined to say if the United States would participate in Israeli military action, although he has said Washington was not involved in initial strikes and the White House said that US forces remained in a defensive posture.- Onus on Iran -Trump earlier said that Iran would be “foolish” not to agree to a negotiated settlement.”It’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late,” Trump told reporters as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.The US president will miss a day of G7 meetings that was expected to include discussions with the leaders of Ukraine and Mexico.Since Friday, Israel has struck major nuclear and military sites and killed leading commanders and nuclear scientists in Iran, which has responded with its own volley of drones and missiles on Israel.Macron voiced objections to what increasingly appeared to be Israel’s goal — toppling the clerical state that took power after the 1979 revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.”All who have thought that by bombing from the outside you can save a country in spite of itself have always been mistaken,” he said.Iran, since Trump pulled out of an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has ramped up uranium enrichment but not yet at levels to create an atomic bomb. Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not acknowledge them publicly.- Tariff talks -The summit comes after months of tumult on the global stage since Trump’s return to the White House.Seeking to shatter a decades-old US-led global economic order, Trump has vowed sweeping tariffs on friends and foes alike although he has postponed implementation until July 9.But Trump voiced optimism about a resolution with Canada and signed documents with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to confirm an agreement with Britain.Trump has previously mocked host Canada, stating that the vast but less populated neighbor should become the 51st US state.But Trump has appeared to show more respect to Canada since Carney, a staid former central banker, took over from the more flamboyant Justin Trudeau in March.Trump had taken office seeking diplomacy both on Iran and Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.He has since voiced frustration that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not accepted a US proposal for a ceasefire.Trump said Monday that Putin was “very insulted” by Russia’s 2014 expulsion from the G8 and that if Russia were still a member, “you wouldn’t have a war right now.”

US President Donald Trump is widely expected to extend the Thursday deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States.It would be the third time Trump put off enforcing a federal law requiring its sale or ban, which was to take effect the day before his January inauguration.”I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May.”If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.”Trump said a group of purchasers is ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance “a lot of money” for the video-clip-sharing sensation’s US operations.Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business.The president is “just not motivated to do anything about TikTok,” said independent analyst Rob Enderle.”Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape.”Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform after coming to believe it helped him win young voters’ support in the November election.”Trump’s not really doing great on his election promises,” Enderle maintained.”This could be one that he can actually deliver on.”- Digital Cold War? -Motivated by national security fears and belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor.TikTok “has become a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry; a flashpoint in the new Cold War for digital control,” said Shweta Singh, an assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in Britain.”National security, economic policy, and digital governance are colliding,” Singh added.The Republican president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office.A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19.As of Monday, there was no word of a TikTok sale in the works.- Tariff turmoil -Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over tariffs imposed by Washington on Beijing.ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law”.Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.Additional US investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance’s share in the new TikTok.Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm.”TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand — it’s simply not as powerful,” said Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering.Meanwhile, it appears TikTok is continuing with business as usual.TikTok on Monday introduced a new “Symphony” suite of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform.”With TikTok Symphony, we’re empowering a global community of marketers, brands, and creators to tell stories that resonate, scale, and drive impact on TikTok,” global head of creative and brand products Andy Yang said in a release.

US President Donald Trump was on Monday leaving a Group of Seven summit early as he hinted of greater involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict and warned Tehran residents to evacuate.Before flying out of Canada in the middle of the G7 gathering, Trump took to social media to back Israel and issue an alert to the Iranian capital of nearly 10 million people.”Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.At a group photo with fellow G7 leaders in the scenic mountain resort of Kananaskis, he said: “I have to be back as soon as I can. I wish I could stay for tomorrow, but they understand, this is big stuff.”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump would attend the leaders’ dinner before returning to the White House.The US president will miss a day of meetings that was expected to include discussions with the leaders of Ukraine and Mexico.He has repeatedly declined to say if the United States would participate in Israeli military action, although he says it was not involved in initial strikes.Trump told reporters before his decision was announced to leave early: “As soon as I leave here, we’re going to be doing something.”The president, who has praised Israel’s strikes despite his stated preference for diplomacy, said Iran would be “foolish” not to agree to a negotiated settlement.”It’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late,” Trump told reporters as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.US forces in the Middle East remain in a defensive posture, a White House spokesman stressed. – Onus on Iran -Israel has struck major nuclear and military sites and killed leading commanders and nuclear scientists in Iran, which has responded with its own volley of drones and missiles on Israel.Canada and European leaders had hoped to draft a G7 statement on the crisis, but diplomats said that Trump had not committed the United States to joining it.Leaders of the club of industrialized democracies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — have mostly backed Israel, but concern has mounted as the violence intensifies.French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters at the summit on Monday, pleaded with Israel to spare civilians in Iran.Any G7 statement would be expected to put the onus on Iran and stop short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.”We’ll highlight the legitimate right of the state of Israel to defend itself and we will also discuss potential additional measures to reach a diplomatic solution,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that G7 leaders share concern about Iran’s nuclear program but also: “I do think there’s a consensus for de-escalation.”Iran, since Trump pulled out of an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has ramped up uranium enrichment but not yet at levels to create an atomic bomb. Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not acknowledge them publicly.- Tariff talks -The summit at a wooded lodge under snow-topped mountains comes after months of tumult on the global stage since Trump’s return.Seeking to shatter a decades-old US-led global economic order, Trump has vowed sweeping tariffs on friends and foes alike although he has postponed implementation until July 9.But Trump voiced optimism about a resolution with Canada and signed documents with Starmer to confirm an agreement with Britain.Trump has previously mocked host Canada, stating that the vast but less populated neighbor should become the 51st US state.But Trump has appeared to show more respect to Canada since Carney, a staid former central banker, took over from the more flamboyant Justin Trudeau in March.Trump had taken office seeking diplomacy both on Iran and Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.He has since voiced frustration that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not accepted a US proposal for a ceasefire.Trump said Monday that Putin was “very insulted” by Russia’s 2014 expulsion from the G8 and that if Russia were still a member, “you wouldn’t have a war right now.”

The US Department of Defense on Monday awarded OpenAI a $200 million contract to put generative artificial intelligence (AI) to work for the military.San Francisco-based OpenAI will “develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” according to the department’s posting of awarded contracts.The program with the defense department is the first partnership under the startup’s initiative to put AI to work in governments, according to OpenAI.OpenAI plans to show how cutting-edge AI can vastly improve administrative operations such as how service members get health care and also cyber defenses, the startup said in a post.All use of AI for the military will be consistent with OpenAI usage guidelines, according to the startup.Big tech companies are increasingly pitching their tools to the US military, among them Meta, OpenAI and, more predictably, Palantir, the AI defense company founded by Peter Thiel, the conservative tech billionaire who has played a major role in Silicon Valley’s rightward shift.OpenAI and defense tech startup Anduril Industries late last year announced a partnership to develop and deploy AI solutions “for security missions.”The alliance brings together OpenAI models and Anduril’s military tech platform to ramp up defenses against aerial drones and other “unmanned aircraft systems”, according to the companies.”OpenAI builds AI to benefit as many people as possible, and supports US-led efforts to ensure the technology upholds democratic values,” OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said at the time.

World leaders at the Group of Seven summit in Canada on Monday pushed US President Donald Trump to back away from his punishing trade war, arguing that it poses a risk to global economic stability.At a summit where host Canada worked to avoid stoking Trump’s anger, and with attention on events in the Middle East, leaders still urged the US president to reverse course on his plans to impose even steeper tariffs on countries across the globe as early as next month.Most countries represented at the G7 are already subject to a 10 percent baseline tariff imposed by Trump, with European countries and Japan also hit with additional levies on cars, steel, and aluminum.G7 leaders used the meeting to sit down with Trump one-on-one to make their case for the US leader to seal agreements that would eliminate the worse of the US tariff threat.In official sessions, the leaders also warned Trump that the tariffs could bring serious harm to the world economy.”Several participants asked to end the tariff dispute as soon as possible,” a senior German official told reporters on condition of anonymity.They argued that the dispute weakens the G7’s economies and “in the end will only strengthen China,” the official said.Trump used the meeting to officially sign a deal already announced in May with Britain, the first country to secure a trade pact with the US to avoid Trump’s threat of the crushing levies.”I like them. That’s the ultimate protection,” Trump told reporters after a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the G7 sidelines.At a media conference marking the deal, Trump opened a folder to display the signed agreement, only for the paperwork to slide out and spread across the ground.”Oops, sorry about that,” he said as Starmer scrambled to gather up the loose sheets and stuff them back in the folder.- ‘Get it done’ -The trade issue is of urgent interest to Canada after the Trump administration announced several additional levies on Canadian imports in recent months, throwing the economic future of America’s northern neighbor into deep uncertainty.After a meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Canadian government indicated that the two sides could reach a trade truce deal within the next 30 days.Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters in Canada that he spoke to Trump for 30 minutes and discussed ways they could find a solution “in a manner that is in line with Japan’s national interests,” according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.”As there are still some points where both sides disagree, we have not reached an agreement on the package as a whole,” Ishiba said.There were hopes that non-G7 countries expected at the meeting on Tuesday would also have their time with Trump, but this was dashed by the US leader’s decision to cut his attendance short due the Iran crisis.Leaders from South Korea, India, Brazil, and South Africa will arrive at the gathering at a resort in the Canadian Rockies with Trump already gone.Dozens of countries are locked in negotiations with Washington to clinch some sort of trade deal before the US imposes stinging reciprocal tariffs, threatened for July 9.Mexico, whose president Claudia Sheinbaum was also expected, is meanwhile seeking to renegotiate its three-way North American free trade agreement that also includes Canada.While there was little expectation that the summit would deliver a breakthrough in the trade negotiations between the US and the rest of the world, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was part of Trump’s delegation.A source at the summit said that French President Emmanuel Macron urged the American leader to quickly end the trade conflict once and for all.The European Commission handles trade negotiations for the 27-country bloc, and the EU’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic was also attending the summit, accompanying the delegation of EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.The EU institutions are official members of the G7, and during the morning session, von der Leyen argued to the leaders that “tariffs — no matter who sets them — are ultimately a tax paid by consumers and businesses at home.”Von der Leyen also met with Trump one-on-one on trade issues in a sit-down that US officials said was at her request.”We instructed the teams to accelerate their work to strike a good and fair deal. Let’s get it done,” she said in a post on X.

An Agence France-Presse photographer was recovering Monday after he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet by law enforcement during their standoff with protesters in downtown Los Angeles.The photographer was covering demonstrations on Saturday — part of the many rallies across the country against US President Donald Trump.He was struck twice by rubber bullets fired by authorities when they abruptly moved in to disperse protesters, and had to be treated in hospital for his injuries.”I was covering the protest … approximately 90 feet away from the police when I received the impact of a rubber bullet in my face and another one in my right arm,” he recalled.The photographer, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was clearly identified as a journalist. “I was working with two cameras, a helmet with AFP stickers on it and also, I had a big patch on my chest that said ‘Press,'” he added.Los Angeles Police Department did not acknowledge firing at the photographer but said it had sought to clear protesters after declaring an unlawful assembly. “Following the dispersal order, less-lethal munitions were used to clear the area of those who refused to comply and leave the area,” it told AFP in a statement. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which also policed the protest, said it was reviewing footage of the incident but added it was “not clear whether our personnel were involved.””The LASD does not condone any actions that intentionally target members of the press,” it said.Saturday’s rally was the largest of the protests that began in Los Angeles on June 6 and have continued daily ever since.They first erupted in anger at raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has been ordered by the Trump administration to target undocumented migrants across the sprawling, heavily Latino city.The demonstrations have been mostly peaceful and confined to a small section of downtown Los Angeles. But at times they have spiraled into violence that Trump has pounced on to send 4,000 National Guard and 700 Marines into the city — a move loudly protested by local officials.Other journalists have also been injured during the protests.The Guardian newspaper reported that a British photographer had to undergo emergency surgery after he was shot in the leg by a non-lethal round on June 7.Meanwhile, an Australian reporter was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet while she was reporting on live television on June 8, an incident slammed by the country’s prime minister as “horrific.”And the New York Post said its photographer was shot in the head with a rubber bullet, also during the June 8 clashes.

The main doctor charged in connection with the drug overdose of “Friends” star Matthew Perry is expected to enter a guilty plea in the coming weeks, the US Justice Department said Monday. Salvador Plasencia “has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, which carries a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison,” the department said in a statement.The second doctor in the case, Mark Chavez, pleaded guilty last October to conspiring to distribute ketamine in the weeks before the actor was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in 2023.Perry’s lengthy struggles with substance addiction were well-documented, but his death at age 54 sent shockwaves through the global legions of “Friends” fans.A criminal investigation was launched soon after an autopsy discovered he had high levels of ketamine — an anesthetic — in his system.Plasencia allegedly bought ketamine off Chavez and sold it to the American-Canadian actor at hugely inflated prices.”I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia wrote in one text message presented by prosecutors.He went to Perry’s home to administer ketamine by injection, according to a plea deal published Monday by the Justice Department.In total, Plasencia distributed 20 vials of ketamine over a roughly two-week period in autumn 2023, the document said.Perry had been taking ketamine as part of supervised therapy for depression.But prosecutors say that before his death he became addicted to the substance, which also has psychedelic properties and is a popular party drug. – Dark struggle -Five people have been charged over Perry’s death. Jasveen Sangha, the alleged “Ketamine Queen” who supplied drugs to high-end clients and celebrities, is charged with selling Perry the dose that killed him. She has pleaded not guilty. Perry’s live-in personal assistant and another man pleaded guilty last August to charges of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.Comedic television series “Friends,” which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive global following and made megastars of previously unknown actors.Perry’s role as the sarcastic man-child Chandler brought him fabulous wealth, but hid a dark struggle with addiction to painkillers and alcohol.In 2018, he suffered a drug-related burst colon and underwent multiple surgeries.In his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry described going through detox dozens of times.”I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.”

Harmful content including hate speech has surged across Meta’s platforms since the company ended third-party fact-checking in the United States and eased moderation policies, a survey showed Monday.The survey of around 7,000 active users on Instagram, Facebook and Threads comes after the Palo Alto company ditched US fact-checkers in January and turned over the task of debunking falsehoods to ordinary users under a model known as “Community Notes,” popularized by X.The decision was widely seen as an attempt to appease President Donald Trump’s new administration, whose conservative support base has long complained that fact-checking on tech platforms was a way to curtail free speech and censor right-wing content.Meta also rolled back restrictions around topics such as gender and sexual identity. The tech giant’s updated community guidelines said its platforms would permit users to accuse people of “mental illness” or “abnormality” based on their gender or sexual orientation.”These policy shifts signified a dramatic reversal of content moderation standards the company had built over nearly a decade,” said the survey published by digital and human rights groups including UltraViolet, GLAAD, and All Out.”Among our survey population of approximately 7,000 active users, we found stark evidence of increased harmful content, decreased freedom of expression, and increased self-censorship.”One in six respondents in the survey reported being the victim of some form of gender-based or sexual violence on Meta platforms, while 66 percent said they had witnessed harmful content such as hateful or violent material.Ninety-two percent of surveyed users said they were concerned about increasing harmful content and felt “less protected from being exposed to or targeted by” such material on Meta’s platforms.Seventy-seven percent of respondents described feeling “less safe” expressing themselves freely.The company declined to comment on the survey.In its most recent quarterly report, published in May, Meta insisted that the changes in January had left a minimal impact.”Following the changes announced in January we’ve cut enforcement mistakes in the US in half, while during that same time period the low prevalence of violating content on the platform remained largely unchanged for most problem areas,” the report said.But the groups behind the survey insisted that the report did not reflect users’ experiences of targeted hate and harassment.”Social media is not just a place we ‘go’ anymore. It’s a place we live, work, and play. That’s why it’s more crucial than ever to ensure that all people can safely access these spaces and freely express themselves without fear of retribution,” Jenna Sherman, campaign director at UltraViolet, told AFP.”But after helping to set a standard for content moderation online for nearly a decade, (chief executive) Mark Zuckerberg decided to move his company backwards, abandoning vulnerable users in the process. “Facebook and Instagram already had an equity problem. Now, it’s out of control,” Sherman added.The groups implored Meta to hire an independent third party to “formally analyze changes in harmful content facilitated by the policy changes” made in January, and for the tech giant to swiftly reinstate the content moderation standards that were in place earlier.The International Fact-Checking Network has previously warned of devastating consequences if Meta broadens its policy shift related to fact-checkers beyond US borders to the company’s programs covering more than 100 countries.AFP currently works in 26 languages with Meta’s fact-checking program, including in Asia, Latin America, and the European Union.

US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Iran to make a deal as Israel pounds the country, but he held back on working with fellow Group of Seven leaders to issue a joint call to encourage de-escalation.Host Canada had designed the summit in the Rockies resort of Kananaskis to paper over differences within the bloc of major industrial democracies, as Trump returns to the global stage in his norm-shattering second term.But two days before the summit, Israel launched a surprise, massive military attack on Iran, which had been in negotiations with the Trump administration over the cleric-run state’s contested nuclear program.Trump, who has praised Israel’s strikes despite his stated preference for diplomacy, said Iran would be “foolish” not to agree to a negotiated settlement.”It’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late,” Trump told reporters as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.Israel has struck major nuclear and military sites and killed leading commanders and nuclear scientists in Iran, which has responded with its own volley of drones and missiles on Israel.Canada and European leaders have looked to draft a statement on the crisis, but diplomats said that Trump has not committed the United States to joining it.”It’ll be up to the American side to decide whether we’re going to have a G7 statement on the Middle East or not,” German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said.- Pressure on Iran -Any statement would be expected to put the onus on Iran and stop short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.”We’ll highlight the legitimate right of the state of Israel to defend itself and we will also discuss potential additional measures to reach a diplomatic solution,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that G7 leaders share concern about Iran’s nuclear program but also: “I do think there’s a consensus for de-escalation.”Unusually, Japan — which has historic relations with Iran and limited domestic pressure related to the Middle East — has broken with its Western allies to condemn Israel’s attack, calling it “completely unacceptable and deeply regrettable.”Iran, since Trump pulled out of an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has ramped up uranium enrichment but not yet at levels to create an atomic bomb. Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not acknowledge them publicly.- Easing tensions with Trump -The summit at a wooded lodge under snow-topped mountains comes after months of tumult on the global stage since Trump’s return.Trump, seeking to shatter a decades-old US-led global economic order, has vowed sweeping tariffs on friends and foes alike although he has postponed implementation until July 9.But Trump voiced optimism about a resolution with Canada and signed documents with Starmer to confirm an agreement with Britain, which he mistakenly called the European Union at one point.Trump opened a folder to display signed documents with Starmer, only for the paperwork to slide out across the ground.”Oops, sorry about that,” Trump said, as Starmer scrabbled to pick up the loose sheets. Trump has previously mocked host Canada, stating that the vast but less populated neighbor should become the 51st US state.But Trump has appeared to show more respect to Canada since Carney, a staid former central banker, took over from the more flamboyant Justin Trudeau in March.Trump was “very respectful” and spoke of “how much he likes Canada,” said the country’s ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to join the G7 talks on Tuesday and to speak to Trump, who had initially tried to force him into a deal with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022.Trump has since voiced frustration that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not accepted a US proposal for a ceasefire. The US president has previously mused about readmitting Russia to the G8, from which it was expelled in 2014 after invading and annexing Ukraine’s region of Crimea, triggering a war which accelerated in 2022 with a full-scale Russian invasion.Trump said Monday that Putin was “very insulted” by the G8 expulsion and that if Russia were still a member, “you wouldn’t have a war right now.”

The main doctor charged in connection with the drug overdose of American-Canadian actor and “Friends” star Matthew Perry is expected to enter a guilty plea in the coming weeks, the US Justice Department said Monday. Salvador Plasencia “has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, which carries a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison,” the department said in a statement.The second doctor in the case, Mark Chavez, pleaded guilty last October to conspiring to distribute ketamine in the weeks before the actor was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in 2023.Perry’s lengthy struggles with substance addiction were well-documented, but his death at age 54 sent shockwaves through the global legions of “Friends” fans.A criminal investigation was launched soon after an autopsy discovered the actor had high levels of ketamine — an anesthetic — in his system.Plasencia allegedly bought ketamine off Chavez and sold it to the desperate star at hugely inflated prices.Jasveen Sangha, the alleged “Ketamine Queen” who supplied drugs to high-end clients and celebrities, is charged with selling Perry the dose that killed him. She has pleaded not guilty. Comedic television series “Friends,” which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive global following and made megastars of previously unknown actors.Perry’s role as the sarcastic man-child Chandler brought him fabulous wealth, but hid a dark struggle with addiction to painkillers and alcohol.In 2018, he suffered a drug-related burst colon and underwent multiple surgeries.In his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry described going through detox dozens of times.”I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.”