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Italian Prime Minister Meloni Meets with Trump at His Florida Resort

A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
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Italian Prime Minister Meloni Meets with Trump at His Florida Resort

A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni flew to Florida to meet with President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday, as the key European leader sought to buttress ties with Trump before his inauguration on Jan. 20.

Members of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort welcomed Meloni with applause after an introduction by the president-elect, according to videos shared on social media by reporters and others.

Her trip comes days before she is to meet US President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome from Thursday to Jan. 12. Trump defeated Biden in the November election and is preparing to return to the White House.

While no details of their meeting have been disclosed, Meloni had planned to talk with Trump about Russia's war in Ukraine, trade issues, the Middle East and the plight of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran, according to Italian media reports.

Meloni's office declined to comment on the reports.

She is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given her conservative credentials and the stability of the right-wing coalition she heads in Italy. She has also forged a close relationship with billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help him win the election.

"This is very exciting. I'm here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy," Trump told the Mar-a-Lago crowd, according to a media pool report. "She’s really taken Europe by storm."

Trump and Meloni then sat down for a screening of a documentary questioning the criminal investigations and legal scrutiny faced by John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who was central to Trump's unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

One of the biggest challenges facing Meloni is the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Iran on Dec. 19.

Sala was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan's Malpensa airport on a US warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2023 attack that killed three US service members near the Syrian-Jordanian border. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.

On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry summoned Italy's ambassador over Abedini's detention, Iranian state media reported.

Meloni became the latest in the handful of foreign leaders who have visited Trump in Florida since the Nov. 5 election. He has met with Argentinian President Javier Milei, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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World

Kyiv Hit Russian Military Plant Using Ukrainian-Made Missile, Says Zelensky

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 09 June 2026. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 09 June 2026. (EPA)
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Kyiv Hit Russian Military Plant Using Ukrainian-Made Missile, Says Zelensky

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 09 June 2026. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 09 June 2026. (EPA)

Kyiv struck a Russian military facility several hundred miles east of Moscow with Ukrainian-produced missiles overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday, marking a rare deployment his country's flagship weapon.

It was the latest in an increasing number of strikes on Russian territory carried out by Kyiv, more than four years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"Last night Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingos struck a military plant in Cheboksary that supplies the occupier's army with components for drones and missiles," Zelensky said.

He published footage purporting to show a missile flying toward its target, and plumes of smoke rising over Russian facilities.

Cheboksary is the main city in Russia's central Chuvashia region, located 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away from the Ukrainian border.

The regional governor, Oleg Nikolayev, confirmed the city had been hit.

"Early this morning, Cheboksary came under rocket attack. We are working to determine the number of casualties and the extent of damage to infrastructure," Nikolayev said on Telegram.

Ukraine also hit an oil refinery in Russia's Samara region, as well as a Russian tanker in the Black Sea, its General Staff said.

Ukraine has developed its own missile called Flamingo but its use remains relatively rare.

World

Netanyahu to Run for Re-Election, His Party Says, After Trump Raises Doubts

President Donald Trump poses for a photo with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before he boards Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport, Oct. 13, 2025, near Tel Aviv, as Israel's President Isaac Herzog watches at left. (AP)
President Donald Trump poses for a photo with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before he boards Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport, Oct. 13, 2025, near Tel Aviv, as Israel's President Isaac Herzog watches at left. (AP)
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Netanyahu to Run for Re-Election, His Party Says, After Trump Raises Doubts

President Donald Trump poses for a photo with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before he boards Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport, Oct. 13, 2025, near Tel Aviv, as Israel's President Isaac Herzog watches at left. (AP)
President Donald Trump poses for a photo with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before he boards Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport, Oct. 13, 2025, near Tel Aviv, as Israel's President Isaac Herzog watches at left. (AP)

Benjamin Netanyahu will seek re-election this year, his party announced on Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump said he wasn't sure if the Israeli prime minister would stand again.

In a brief statement, Netanyahu's Likud Party said he would run in the election and, “God willing, he would win”. The election has not yet been formally announced but must be held by October.

Earlier, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl posted on X that Trump had told him ‌he did ‌not know if Netanyahu would stand.

"I don't know, ‌he's ⁠had an amazing ⁠career. Does he want to continue?" the journalist quoted Trump as saying.

The Israeli election will be the first since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, the country's worst security failure, which precipitated Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu has faced a tumultuous term since returning to power in December ⁠2022 at the helm of the most ‌right-wing coalition in Israeli history. He ‌faced mass anti-government protests before the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and ‌Iran.

Polls have repeatedly indicated that his coalition would fail to ‌win a majority in the next election. A poll published by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute think tank on June 9 said that 61% of the Israeli public believe he should not run.

However, ‌polls also show that a potential coalition of opposition parties would fall short of a ⁠parliamentary ⁠majority unless they form a coalition with Arab parties, which some opposition leaders have ruled out.

US and Israeli officials say Trump and Netanyahu, who launched the Iran war together in February, still have a close relationship, though it has at times seen strain, including in recent weeks as Trump has demanded Israel curb military action in Lebanon while Washington negotiates a peace deal with Tehran.

Last week, Trump acknowledged calling Netanyahu "[expletive] crazy" in a hot-tempered phone call, though he also said they get along well. He has repeatedly called on Israel's president to pardon Netanyahu over outstanding corruption charges that Netanyahu denies.

World

Iran Says US Strikes Damage Diplomatic Efforts

Iranians walk past a large billboard featuring late Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians walk past a large billboard featuring late Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Iran Says US Strikes Damage Diplomatic Efforts

Iranians walk past a large billboard featuring late Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians walk past a large billboard featuring late Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Iran's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the United States had damaged the ongoing international diplomatic effort to end the war, after more US strikes on targets in southern Iran.

"Unfortunately, the United States is damaging this diplomatic process through the contradictory messages it sends, its repeated shifts in positions and demands, and, worst of all, through repeated violations of the ceasefire," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, in a video message carried by Iranian media.

"Any diplomatic process is damaged by the use of force and by resorting to unlawful actions on the ground."

The worst bout of fighting between Washington and Tehran since their April 8 ceasefire has cast further doubt on US President Donald Trump's earlier claim that negotiations were in their "final throes" before reaching an enduring settlement to end the Middle East war.