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Asked earlier this week if Trump was considering giving Ukraine Tomahawks, he said: “We’ll see… I may.”

But when asked about the same prospect following his call with Putin, Trump said “we can’t deplete” the US stockpile of Tomahawks, adding “we need them too… so I don’t know what we can do about that”.

Writing on his Truth Social platform after his call with Putin concluded, Trump said he and the Russian president “spent a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over”.

He said “high level advisers” from both countries would meet at an unspecified location next week, with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the American delegation.

Trump also said he would update Zelensky on his talks with Putin on Friday, adding: “I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation.”

He later told reporters he expected to meet Putin in Hungary “within two weeks”.

The country’s defence ministry said on Friday (Oct 17), the most senior officers to be purged in an anti-graft drive that began in 2023.

He Weidong, China’s number two general, and navy admiral Miao Hua, the Chinese military’s former top political officer, are the latest senior military officials to be targeted in a campaign against corruption in the People’s Liberation Army.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Zhang Xiaogang, alleged in a statement that He Weidong, vice-chair of the powerful Central Military Commission, and the eight others under investigation had seriously violated the party’s discipline and that their misconduct involved large sums of money.

He was the most senior military official to be targeted in the latest anti-graft drive against the Chinese military leadership so far. As he was also part of the 24-member Politburo in China, the impact of the announcement is likely to extend beyond the army.

He, who was elevated to the Central Military Commission in 2022, has not been seen in public for months. He was formerly head of the Eastern Theater Command, which holds primary responsibility for operations against Taiwan should hostilities break out.

The eight other officials included the commission’s director of the political work department, Miao Hua, who was already put under investigation last November.

“(The offenses) were of grave nature, with extremely harmful consequences,” Zhang said.

The announcement came just days before Chinese President Xi Jinping and other party elites are to meet in Beijing for a closed-door gathering known as the fourth plenum to map out the country’s goals for the next five years.

In Xi’s first term as party secretary, his multiyear campaign against corruption brought down numerous high-profile political rivals and thousands of officials.

This has led some to allege a widespread purge of officers suspected of conspiring with outside forces, or of simply being insufficiently loyal to Xi as the Chinese leader’s anti-corruption campaign has continued.

High-ranking officers occupy an elevated position in Chinese politics and can command extensive privileges, official and unofficial.

In June last year, China announced that former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe were expelled from the ruling Communist Party and accused of corruption

Weeks of youth-led demonstrations in Peru have descended into violence amid calls for interim President Jose Jeri to resign.

Demonstrators clash with anti-riot police officers
Dozens of people have been injured in ongoing anti-government protests
Peru’s interim government said a state of emergency will be declared in the capital, Lima, after clashes between anti-government protesters and police turned deadly.

For weeks, youth led demonstrations have taken to the streets of Peruvian cities, decrying low wages, corruption and organized crime. On Wednesday, one man was shot dead, and 100 more were injured, when protests turned violent in the center of the capital. Some 80 police officers were also injured.

Brogan Stewart was sentenced to 11 years, Marco Pitzettu to eight and Christopher Ringrose was handed a 10-year sentence at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday.
Three Nazi-worshipping extremists convicted of terror offences were planning the first of a number of “escalating” attacks when they were arrested, a court has heard.

Christopher Ringrose, 34, Marco Pitzettu, 25, and Brogan Stewart, 25, were found guilty in May of planning terrorist attacks on mosques and synagogues.

In the first of a two-day sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said the three defendants “justified, encouraged and glorified serious violence”.

Stewart, from West Yorkshire, Ringrose, from Staffordshire, and Pitzettu, from Derbyshire, will be sentenced on Friday.A jury at Sheffield Crown Court heard how the trio, who are not believed to have met in the real world before they appeared together in the dock, were preparing to use more than 200 weapons they had amassed, including machetes, swords, crossbows and an illegal stun gun.

Ringrose had also 3D-printed most of the components of a semi-automatic firearm at the time of his arrest and was trying to get the remaining parts.

In the first of a two-day sentencing hearing on Thursday, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said that the three defendants were “followers of an extreme right-wing Nazi ideology”.

Meta introduces PG-13 content filtering for teens on InstagramFile Photo

US social media company, Meta, announced sweeping changes Tuesday to teen accounts on Instagram designed to align content with PG-13 movie ratings by default.

Teens younger than 18 will be automatically placed into updated 13+ content settings and cannot opt out without parental permission.

PG-13 is a film content rating, indicating that some content in the film may not be suitable for children under the age of 13.

“This means that teens will see content on Instagram that’s similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie,” Meta said in a statement.

Parents seeking stricter controls can activate an additional restrictive setting for greater oversight.

The updated policies extend beyond the company’s existing restrictions on sexually suggestive content and graphic imagery. Instagram will now hide or decline to recommend posts containing “strong language, certain risky stunts,” and content encouraging “potentially harmful behaviors.”

Meta acknowledged potential workarounds. “We’ll use age prediction technology to place teens into certain content protections—even if they claim to be adults,” it said.

The company will prevent teens from following accounts regularly sharing age-inappropriate material and block search results for mature terms, including “alcohol” and “gore,” even when misspelled. Teens will not be able to open links to restricted content sent through direct messages.

Additionally, Instagram updated its artificial intelligence experiences to follow PG-13 guidelines, ensuring AI does not provide age-inappropriate responses.

Meta said the gradual rollout began Tuesday across the US, UK, Australia and Canada, with complete implementation expected by the end of the year.

The company plans global expansion and similar protections on its other platform, Facebook.

Sony Group Takes On the World with Global “Demon Slayer”

The Sony Group is hoping to see the success repeated in global markets, opening a fresh chapter in the popularity of Japanese animation worldwide. Sony Group Takes On the World with Global “Demon Slayer” Hit Parade | Infinity Castle, the latest installment in the Demon Slayer film franchise, is on track to break the all-time box office record in Japan. The Sony Group is hoping to see the success repeated in global markets, opening a fresh chapter in the popularity of Japanese animation worldwide.The Sony-owned Crunchyroll release shattered expectations with a mighty $70 million debut in North America, according to Sunday estimates from Comscore. That haul marks the biggest domestic opening ever for an anime film, surpassing “Pokémon: The First Movie,” which opened with $31 million in 1999.

The film extended its meteoric run, scoring the biggest anime opening of all time with a $132.1 million weekend, according to Comscore. Crunchyroll and Sony rolled it out across North America and 49 international markets, pushing the global total to $177.8 million.

“This performance by this particular film shows the unpredictability of the box office,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “If we were sitting here, let’s say a month or even a couple of weeks ago, would we be thinking, ‘Wow, a Japanese anime film would be number one at the box office, overperform and bring in $70 million?’ If you predicted that, kudos to you.”

The latest movie is the first in a three-film trilogy that brings the hit Shonen saga to its climactic showdown. The story follows Tanjiro Kamado, a kind-hearted boy who takes up swordsmanship after his family is slaughtered and his sister, Nezuko, is turned into a demon. Together, they fight a supernatural underworld of monstrous foes while clinging to what’s left of their humanity.

The “Infinity Castle” opener hails from renowned studio Ufotable, whose lavish visuals and breakneck fight sequences have helped make the franchise a global sensation and juggernaut.

The film’s domination also points to a September rebound after a sluggish August. Warner Bros.’ “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” which opened to $83 million last weekend, slipped to second with $26 million.

Kevin Federline and Britney Spears during Mariah Carey and Jermaine Dupri Host GRAMMY After Party Sponsored by LG at Private Home in Hollywood, Califormia, United States.Kevin Federline and Britney Spears are pictured at a Grammy after party event in Hollywood, Calif.Britney Spears is speaking out against claims made by her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, after he publicly expressed concerns about her mental health.

Federline has been discussing his upcoming memoir, You Thought You Knew, and his concerns for Spears. Federline and Spears were married from 2004 to 2007 and share two sons, Sean Preston Federline, 20, and Jayden James Federline, 19.

“The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible,” Federline, 47, wrote in an excerpt of his book, viewed by The New York Times.

“It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK,” Federline continued. “From where I sit, the clock is ticking, and we’re getting close to the 11th hour. Something bad is going to happen if things don’t change, and my biggest fear is that our sons will be left holding the pieces.”

Ahead of the release of Federline’s memoir on Oct. 21 and in response to the multitude of recent news reports on its contents, Spears took to social media to call her ex-husband out for “gaslighting” and “hurting” the 43-year-old pop star with a book she described as full of “white lies.”