US President Joe Biden will discuss energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation in Saudi Arabia on Friday on a trip designed to reset the U.S. relationship.
Biden will hold meetings with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, along with other government officials, a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
Biden will meet with a broader set of Arab leaders at a summit in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Saturday.
At the start of Biden's trip to the Middle East, officials said he would avoid close contacts, such as shaking hands, as a precaution against COVID-19. But the president ended up engaging in hand-shaking in Israel.
The United States is eager to see Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners pump more oil to help bring down the high cost of gasoline and ease the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.
The US Central Command said it will begin implementing a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on April 13 at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), after President Donald Trump said the US Navy would start blockading the Strait of Hormuz.
Hungary's veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban lost power to the upstart centre-right Tisza party in Sunday's national election after 16 years in office, marking a setback for his allies in Russia and US President Donald Trump's White House.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday the US Navy would immediately start blockading the Strait of Hormuz, raising the stakes after marathon talks with Iran failed to reach a deal to end the war, jeopardising a fragile two-week ceasefire.
At least 200 people are feared dead after Nigerian military jets struck a village market while pursuing rebels in the northeast of the country on Saturday night, a councillor for the area and residents said on Sunday.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Sunday of breaching the 32-hour ceasefire in their four-year war, reporting more than a thousand drone and shelling attacks just hours after the truce began on Saturday to mark Orthodox Easter.