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The US Navy has shot down a suspected Houthi drone which was headed in the direction of a warship after being launched from Yemen, according to a defence official.

The USS Mason destroyer took out the targetted drone, according to the US military source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Houthi rebels had attacked a commercial ship, the defence official said, and the Mason was responding to that attempted raid when it took out the drone.

No one was hurt in the attack, they added.

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The official said the commercial vessel Ardmore Encounter was attacked by small boats and then by two missiles that missed the ship.

The two missiles were launched from territory held by Yemen‘s Houthi rebels and missed the tanker near the Bab al Mandeb Strait – a maritime trade route between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

The Ardmore Encounter was transporting jet fuel to Europe from Mangalore in India when guards opened fire to drive off skiffs loaded with men trying to board the vessel, according to the private intelligence firm Ambrey.

“No one boarded the vessel and all crew members are safe and accounted for,” a statement from Ardmore Shipping Corporation said.

“The vessel remains fully operational with no loss of cargo or damage on board.”

“Ardmore is in close contact with the relevant authorities and military assistance is now in the area providing support as required,” it added.

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The assault was part of an escalating campaign by the Iranian-backed Houthis to target ships near the Bab al Mandeb Strait.

Nearly 10% of all oil traded at sea passes through it, which equates to an annual estimation of $1trn (£789bn) in goods.

The rebel group is suspected to have carried out a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.

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How Houthis seized cargo ship

Earlier on Wednesday, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations – which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East – reported a separate incident off the coast of Oman.

It said a vessel had been followed by smaller boats carrying machine guns and men in grey uniforms before escaping unharmed.

This followed a strike on a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea off the coast near Yemen on Monday.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack and said the Norwegian-owned ship was heading to Israel.

The group has blamed Israel for instability in the Middle East, saying the “circle of conflict” in the region was driven by its “continued crimes”.

There was no immediate link found between the Ardmore Encounter and Israel.

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What we learnt flying over the world’s largest iceberg A23a – and why it’s not long for this world

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What we learnt flying over the world's largest iceberg A23a - and why it's not long for this world

One thousand feet above the world’s largest iceberg, it’s hard to believe what you’re seeing.

It stretches all the way to the horizon – a field of white as far as the eye can see.

Its edge looks thin in comparison, until you make out a bird flying alongside and realise it is, in fact, a cliff of ice hundreds of feet high.

Scientists who have used satellites to track the iceberg’s decades-long meanderings north from Antarctica have codenamed the iceberg A23a.

But up close, numbers and letters don’t do it justice.

SN stills of world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a visited by Tom Clarke, around 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia. No credit needed
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The massive iceberg has run aground around 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia

SN stills of world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a visited by Tom Clarke, around 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia. No credit needed
SN stills of world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a visited by Tom Clarke, around 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia. No credit needed

It’s a seemingly endless slab of white, fringed by an aquamarine glow – the ocean at its base backlit by a sill of reflective ice below.

Monotonous yet magnificent; we’re flying along the coastline of a nation of ice.

And it’s also hard to believe you’re seeing it at all.

Where it has run aground – 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia – seems impossibly remote.

We’re 800 miles from the Falkland Islands and 900 miles from the icy wastes of Antarctica.

With no runway on South Georgia, there’s only one aircraft that ever flies here.

SN stills of small island of South Georgia, visited by Tom Clarke, as he flew by the world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a. No credit needed
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The iceberg is around 50 miles from these dramatic peaks in South Georgia

SN stills of small island of South Georgia, visited by Tom Clarke, as he flew by the world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a. No credit needed
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Large chunks of ice have broken off

SN stills of small island of South Georgia, visited by Tom Clarke, as he flew by the world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a. No credit needed
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The view over South Georgia

Once a month or so, a Royal Air Force A400 transport plane based in the Falklands carries out Operation Cold Stare – a maritime surveillance and enforcement flight over the British Overseas Territory that includes the neighbouring South Sandwich Islands.

It’s a smooth, albeit noisy, two-hour flight to South Georgia.

But as the dramatic peaks of the island come into view, the ride – for us inexperienced passengers at least – gets scary.

Gusts off the mountains and steep terrain throw the plane and its occupants around.

Not that that stops the pilots completing their circuit of the island.

We fly over some of its 500,000 square mile marine protected zone designed to protect the greatest concentration of marine mammals and birds on the planet that is found on South Georgia.

SN stills of world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a visited by Tom Clarke, around 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia. No credit needed
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Cracks are appearing along the edges of A23a

Only then do we head out to the iceberg, and even though it’s only a few minutes flying from South Georgia it’s at first hard to see. It’s so big and white it’s indistinguishable from the horizon through the haze.

Until suddenly, its edge comes into view.

SN stills of world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a visited by Tom Clarke, around 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia. No credit needed
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The warmer ocean is undercutting the ice, weakening it further

SN stills of world's biggest iceberg codenamed A23a visited by Tom Clarke, around 50 miles off the small island of South Georgia. No credit needed
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Arches have formed at its base and are being eroded away

It’s immediately apparent the A23a is not too long for this world. Large icebergs hundreds of metres across have already broken off and are drifting closer to South Georgia.

All along its edges, cracks are appearing and arches at its base caverns are being eroded by the warmer ocean here, undercutting the ice, weakening it further.

The iceberg might present a problem for some of South Georgia’s super-abundant penguins, seals and seabirds. A jumble of rapidly fragmenting ice could choke up certain bays and beaches in which colonies of the animals breed.

The trillion tonnes of fresh water melting out of the iceberg could also interfere with the food webs that sustain marine life.

However, the breeding season is coming to an end and icebergs are also known to fertilise oceans with sediment carried from the Antarctic continent.

The impact on shipping is more relevant. There’s not much of it down here. But fishing vessels, cruise ships and research teams ply these waters and smaller lumps of ice called “growlers” are a regular risk.

A23a will create many.

Icebergs this big are too few for scientists to know if they are becoming more frequent or not.

But they are symptomatic of a clearly emerging trend. As our climate warms, Antarctica is slowly melting.

It’s losing around 150 billion tonnes of ice a year – half of it breaking off the continent in the form of icebergs calving from glaciers, the rest melting directly from its vast ice sheets as temperatures gradually rise.

The pace of A23a’s disintegration is far, far faster. It will disappear in months, not millennia.

But watching its edges crumble and slide into the South Atlantic, you can’t help seeing it as the fate of a whole continent in miniature.

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Russia sticks to red lines on 30-day Ukraine ceasefire plan – as Zelenskyy attacks ‘manipulative’ Putin

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Russia sticks to red lines on 30-day Ukraine ceasefire plan - as Zelenskyy attacks 'manipulative' Putin

Vladimir Putin has said Russia agrees to an end to fighting in Ukraine, but “lots of questions” remain over proposals for a 30-day ceasefire.

Casting doubt over whether a deal can be agreed, the Russian president said a ceasefire must lead to “long-term peace” which “would remove the initial reasons for the crisis”.

Russia has previously said it would not accept Ukraine joining NATO and European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Moscow has reportedly also presented a “list of demands” to the US to end the war, which would include international recognition of Russia’s claim to Crimea and four Ukrainian provinces.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Mr Putin’s remarks were “very predictable” and “very manipulative”, adding that the Russian president was preparing to reject the ceasefire proposal he agreed with the US.

Mr Putin’s comments came as Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow ahead of talks over Ukraine with the Russian president.

Vladimir Putin. Pic: Reuters
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Vladimir Putin. Pic: Reuters

Ukraine war latest updates

Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Mr Putin described the situation in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have pushed into Moscow’s territory, as “completely under our control”.

It appeared the US had persuaded Ukraine to accept the ceasefire, he said, but Ukraine is also interested because of the battlefield situation, with its forces in Kursk fully blocked in the coming days.

“In these conditions, I believe it would be good for the Ukrainian side to secure a ceasefire for at least 30 days,” he said.

He also said there would need to be a mechanism to control possible breaches of the truce.

Another issue he raised was whether Ukraine could use the 30-day ceasefire to continue to mobilise and rearm.

He said he would need to speak to Mr Trump over the terms of any ceasefire.

Moscow’s maximalist position hasn’t changed

Vladimir Putin was never going to flat out reject the US proposal for a ceasefire, but he also wasn’t going to fully endorse it either. Russia’s agreement, as expected, comes with several strings attached.

The Kremlin leader didn’t specify Moscow’s demands but he did allude to them by saying that any peace deal had to eliminate the “root causes” of the conflict.

It’s become a frequent refrain of his, and shows that Moscow’s maximalist position hasn’t changed.

By “root causes”, the Russian president is referring to NATO’s eastward expansion, which he blames as the catalyst for the war in Ukraine.

It’s a very clear indication his agreement to a ceasefire relies on getting some kind of security guarantees of his own, for example a promise Ukraine will never join NATO, or that there’ll never be any European peacekeeping forces from NATO members based in the country in the future.

He also articulated why Moscow is reluctant to agree to an immediate truce, talking at length about his forces’ advances in Kursk region. Ukraine’s incursion there has been humiliating for the Kremlin, but their expulsion is finally within reach.

Mr Putin doesn’t want that opportunity to slip away. By pausing Russia’s offensive, he fears they’ll lose the advantage and give the enemy time to regroup.

Mr Putin was, however, careful to thank Donald Trump for his efforts in trying to reach a peace agreement, perhaps wary of any backlash from the White House. But despite that, he still doesn’t appear to be showing any sign of compromise.

Mr Putin was speaking alongside Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko and the pair said in a joint statement that NATO’s actions regarding the war in Ukraine were fraught with the risk of nuclear conflict.

The two countries also criticised the European Union’s policy towards Russia, labelling it aggressive and confrontational.

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Will Russia go for ceasefire deal?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 has left thousands of people dead and injured, millions displaced and towns and cities reduced to rubble.

Moscow’s forces have been advancing since the middle of last year and now control nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.

In his speech Mr Putin said Russian forces were pushing forwards along the entire frontline.

Responding to the comments, Mr Zelenskyy said: “Putin, of course, is afraid to say directly to President Trump that he wants to continue this war, he wants to kill Ukrainians.”

He said Mr Putin’s words were “just another Russian manipulation”.

Donald Trump and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. Pic: Reuters
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Donald Trump and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. Pic: Reuters

Mr Trump also responded to the remarks, saying Mr Putin’s statement was not complete and reiterated his willingness to talk to the Russian president, adding: “Hopefully Russia will do the right thing.”

In a news conference with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, the US president shifted his tone on the alliance, saying it was “stepping up” and praising Mr Rutte for doing “some really good work”.

Mr Rutte said NATO members needed to produce more weapons, stating the alliance was not doing enough and was lagging behind Russia and China.

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Putin visits Kursk in camo after Ukrainian attack

It comes after Mr Putin donned a camouflage uniform to visit a command post in the Kursk region on Wednesday.

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Donald Trump says he thinks US will annex Greenland

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Donald Trump says he thinks US will annex Greenland

Donald Trump has said he thinks the US will annex Greenland, days after the country’s incoming prime minister said: “We don’t want to be Americans.”

During an Oval Office meeting with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, the US president was asked about his hopes to annex Greenland.

“I think that will happen,” he said. “I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man who could be very instrumental.

“You know Mark, we need that for international security. We have a lot of our favourite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful.”

Donald Trump and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. Pic: Reuters
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Donald Trump and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. Pic: Reuters

Mr Trump questioned Denmark’s claim to the autonomous territory, saying Denmark was “very far away” from Greenland despite being part of the country’s kingdom.

“A boat landed there 200 years ago or something. They say they have rights to it,” Mr Trump said. “I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t think it is, actually.”

He said the US already has a military presence in Greenland and added: “Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers going there.”

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Why Greenland’s election result is a blow to Trump

It comes after Greenland’s centre-right party won an election in a result seen as a rejection of Mr Trump’s interference in the island’s politics.

Greenland. Pic: Reuters
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Greenland. Pic: Reuters

The Demokraatit party favours a slow move towards independence from Denmark – with its leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen telling Sky News on the eve of the election “we want to build our own country by ourselves”.

In his White House news briefing Mr Trump claimed the election result was very good for the US and said “the person who did the best is a very good person as far as we’re concerned”.

He previously promised “billions of dollars” in investment and told Greenlanders he would “make you rich”.

Mr Trump also reacted to Vladimir Putin’s remarks about Russia agreeing to an end in fighting in Ukraine, but adding “lots of questions” remain over proposals for a 30-day ceasefire.

The US president said his Russian counterpart’s statement was not complete and reiterated his willingness to talk to him, adding: “Hopefully Russia will do the right thing.”

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