The British Defense Ministry said in a statement the ships - shadowed by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force - were withdrawing from Syria, according to Reuters news agency. 

Russia has been evacuating its military assets from Syria, the ministry said.

The Russian Embassy in London did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Russia hopes to retain the use of naval and air bases in Syria, the report added.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to meet Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in the coming days for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, US officials say.

America's top diplomat will be joined by national security adviser Mike Waltz and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, the officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said Washington, Moscow and Kyiv would be involved in talks, but Europe was not invited.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had not been invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia.

Amid European concern that the US is moving ahead on peace talks with Russia without consulting the continent, Ukraine's European allies will gather in Paris next week for an emergency summit on the war.

Speaking on Saturday Kellogg said previous negotiations had failed because too many parties had been involved.

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What has Trump said about his ‘plan’ in Gaza?

Trump has made controversial claims about Gaza, primarily around the idea that the US should take control of the territory, remove its people, and “redevelop” it.

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George Achoka is on a mission to break the Guinness World Record for the most hugs given in 24 hours this Valentine’s Day. However, it's about more than just a record. His "Hugs Fest" aims to spread love, and positivity, and raise awareness about mental health, stress, and depression.

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Torrential rain battered central and western regions, with Elba’s Portoferraio hit hardest as streets turned into rivers, cars floated in floodwaters, and firefighters rescued 28 people trapped in mudslides, prompting urgent warnings from authorities.

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Brussels is ready to discuss “anything” to avoid Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on European exports, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said ahead of his visit to Washington next week.

“I'm asking my American partners, why do we have to go through this pain?” Šefčovič told attendees at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. “If there are other issues on the table, let's sit together, let's resolve it.”

The Commission's Slovak stalwart suggested that Brussels is willing to reduce its substantial surplus in goods and services with the US, which reached €50 billion last year and has been repeatedly criticised by Trump.

Šefčovič also signalled that the EU is ready to reduce its 10% tariff rate on cars, which is four times higher than the US rate.

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If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk,” said US Vice President JD Vance in an attempt to defend billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

This comes amid sharp disagreements between the United States and European allies over immigration, free speech, and populism.

Vance dismissed the allegations of election interference and Musk’s influence on it, likening the tech billionaire to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

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The 4-Nations Face-Off will certainly be must-watch TV on Saturday when Sweden takes on Finland and Canada meets the U.S., now that the series is about to shift from the Bell Centre in Montreal to the TD Garden in Boston on Sunday. With no shortage of superstars on all four squads, the event that will transition into the World Cup of Hockey in 2028 has generated all kinds of engaging sport television, radio and online content in a way that no NHL All-Star Game could ever imagine. It’s already served its purpose as a winner in Canada and should give the NBA All-Star Weekend a good run for its money south of the border, especially if the Americans continue to shine.

Meanwhile, from a record-setting pre-game show in the U.S. to an all-time high for the Apple Music Halftime Show featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar, the NFL once again proved it is in a stratosphere of its own when it comes to conventional television and streaming. For more than 15 years now, the Super Bowl has been a guaranteed 100 million-plus American audience, no matter which teams are in the championship game. There’s no other title match or series that consistently delivers the way the NFL does on Super Bowl Sunday.

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On February 14, YouTube will celebrate its 20th anniversary. In retrospect, Valentine's Day was a fitting launch date, because the streaming-video behemoth has received a lot of love over the years.

An estimated 2.5 billion users — nearly half of all internet users worldwide — currently access YouTube every month. That's second only to Facebook, which attracts just over 3 billion.

The attraction is content. Lots of it. An estimated 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute — that's 720,000 hours each day. The platform's billions of users watch billions of hours every day, generating many billions of views. And, of course, all that engagement generates billions in revenue. The primary source is advertising, with additional contributions from subscription offerings, including YouTube Music, ad-free YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, the streaming service that provides access to more than 100 broadcast and cable networks.

In the first quarter of 2024, YouTube reported $8.09 billion in revenue, a 21% year-over-year increase from the same period in 2023. In the second quarter, the amount rose to $8.66 billion, and to $8.92 billion in the third quarter. The company is on track to reap about $34–36 billion this year. To put this in perspective, when Google bought YouTube, which was founded by three former PayPal employees, in 2006 for $1.65 billion, some analysts called it a risky move. Now, YouTube earns about five times that amount each quarter.

While its economic might and endless infusion of content are well established, an intriguing trend in recent years has begun to reframe the way both users and the media industry think about YouTube: a significant uptick in viewing on televisions.

“It’s been incredible,” says head of product Kurt Wilms, who tracks user activity at a granular level. “It’s our fastest-growing screen.”

In fact, in the past three years, YouTube viewing on televisions has increased by 130%. That’s 150 million people in the United States who watch YouTube on televisions every month, and globally, users now consume more than a billion hours of its content on TV screens every day. The shift in viewer behavior is generally attributed to two developments — one driven by technology, one by a public health crisis.

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Humans have been consuming yogurt for millennia. Ancient texts dating back to 6,000 B.C. reference its health-promoting properties. Now, a new study finds one more benefit to a long-term yogurt habit: It may protect against certain types of aggressive colon cancer through changes in the gut microbiome.

In the study, researchers at Mass General Brigham looked at data from more than 150,000 people who were followed for at least three decades. They found that people who regularly ate two or more servings of yogurt a week had lower rates of certain types of colorectal cancer. 

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