The man on trial in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie chose on Tuesday not to testify or call any witnesses in the federal terrorism case, which is expected to head to the jury as soon as Wednesday. Hadi Matar’s lawyer told the court that the 28-year-old – who already has been convicted of state-level attempted murder charges – would not take the stand at his trial on charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. “At this time, the defence rests,” lawyer Nathaniel Barone said....

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s ninth president in a decade at an official ceremony in Lima on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse journalists observed. The conservative 51-year-old won June’s run-off by fewer than 50,000 votes and will govern until 2031. Fujimori, the daughter of a former president jailed for human rights abuses, will become Peru’s ninth president in a decade. The 51-year-old is hoping to stabilise the country’s turbulent politics. Over the past decade, only three of Peru’s...

US President Donald Trump voiced ⁠irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting on Tuesday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister’s planned talking points on Iran had surfaced publicly, in a fresh sign of strain between the two leaders. Asked about reports that Netanyahu wanted to talk to him about Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Iran’s main nuclear sites, Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “I don’t need...

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met on Tuesday ahead of Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, with the two leaders discussing ways for Ukraine to produce its own powerful weapons and “other ideas that could help” in its continuing war against Russia. The sit-down in the Oval Office, which was closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the Nato summit earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where Trump announced that the US will give Ukraine a licence...

Firefighters raced on Tuesday to subdue huge wildfires that have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, as western Europe braced for another heatwave. The fires have torn through a region already battered by a blisteringly hot and dry summer. Crews were seeking to capitalise on more favourable weather before a new wave of higher temperatures settled in from Wednesday. In the Bordeaux region of France, firefighters contained ‌the forest blaze...

Senator Lindsey Graham, the son of pool hall owners who rose to become one of his generation’s more influential US politicians at home and abroad, was being eulogised Tuesday as a “swashbuckling” public servant and “true American original” during memorial services in Washington. Graham’s remains arrived at the US Capitol, where the Republican served for more than 30 years as an indefatigable deal maker who talked and laughed and badgered his colleagues into action. His flag-draped casket was...

A Hongkonger has described being “quite scared” as a 7.1-magnitude quake shook Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture where she and her boyfriend were travelling, while the city’s travel authority confirmed that about 200 members of tour groups visiting the region were all safe. Leon Chan, 18, recounted to the South China Morning Post that she and her boyfriend had just got off a bus on the west side of Kumamoto city when the quake hit on Tuesday afternoon. The epicentre was about 20km (12.4...