King Charles is ready to jet off for the crucial overseas visit as the tensions between the US and the UK are getting intense.

Last September, the royals had hosted US President Trump and the First Lady at Windsor Castle to smooth over ties and move along some trade deals that were important for the UK government.

In recent events, there had been a tense exchange over Trump’s approach to the Middle-east conflict between the US President and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmar.

Political commentator Iain Dale noted that the “special” relationship between the two nations has been “shattered” and it is at a “historic low” after Trump’s “insults” to the country.

Keir has refused to support Trump’s war which had not sat well with the US president. Although, Trump maintained high praise for the monarch and expressed his enthusiasm to welcome him with a grand gesture.

“The monarchy is part of what is known as Britain’s soft power, how we influence world leaders, other countries through the monarchy,” he explained.

“And this visit is absolutely key to using that soft power.”

There are some strict rules and specials bans set in place as the visit had been months in preparation. The briefing for this visit had been “more extensive than for any other state visit he’ll ever undertake”.

Since US Presidents don’t bow, there is a middle ground settled about “bowing and curtseying” and there is coordination to to avoid anyone breaking formal guidelines or a “clash of colour or designs” in their wardrobes.

There is also a policy about gift exchange at both the White House and the Palace. Heavy research goes into what gift should be presented to the dignitaries because one wrong move can cause a major upset, putting the whole visit in jeopardy.

OTSUCHI: Hundreds of firefighters were battling wildfires in the forests of northern Japan on Saturday, as authorities urged more than 3,200 people to evacuate from their homes, government officials said.

As of Saturday morning, blazes in the mountainous areas of Iwate region had burned about 700 hectares (1,730 acres) since breaking out three days ago, local government officials said in a statement.

A large column of smoke, which could be smelled 30 kilometres (20 miles) away, was seen rising up the valley near the town of Otsuchi as two helicopters dropped water on the burning forest.

In Otsuchi, fire engines were spraying the forest near homes close to the fire.

About a dozen helicopters and more than 1,300 firefighters as well as Japan Self-Defence Forces troops would be mobilised on Saturday to battle the fires, the statement said.

At least eight buildings had been burnt but all the residents had evacuated, it said.

“We’re making efforts to extinguish (the fires) … and will update the information” later in the day, an Iwate official told AFP.

“Ultimately, I do hope it’ll rain,” a man in Otsuchi told public broadcaster NHK.

Increasingly dry winters have raised the risk of wildfires. A blaze that broke out in the Iwate city of Ofunato early last year was Japan’s worst in more than half a century.

Scientists have long warned that climate change caused by mankind’s burning of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires.

• Global nuclear stockpiles show renewed upward trend.
• Trust eroding within non-proliferation treaty framework.
• Summit risks deadlock amid Ukraine and Iran tensions.

UNITED NATIONS: Signatories of the landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty will meet at the UN from Monday as hopes fade they can reach agreement and tensions soar between the atomic powers.

In 2022, during the last review of the treaty that is considered the cornerstone of non-proliferation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned humanity was “one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”

The situation has only worsened since then.

“I think there is a shared, if you will, sense of crisis by all states parties,” said Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

“We don’t have any bilateral arms control agreements between the two largest nuclear weapon states,” she said referring to the February expiration of the New Start treaty between Moscow and Washington.

“We are also beginning to see quantitative increase of nuclear capabilities in all nuclear weapon states.”

Nakamitsu said that mounting geopolitical tensions had halted the post-Cold War trend of disarmament.

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), signed by almost all the countries on the planet — with notable exceptions like Israel, India, and Pakistan — aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote complete disarmament, and to encourage cooperation on civilian nuclear projects.

The nine nuclear-armed states — Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea — possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads in January 2025, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The United States and Russia hold nearly 90% of nuclear weapons globally and have carried out major programs to modernise them in recent years, according to SIPRI.

China has also rapidly increased its nuclear stockpile, SIPRI said, with the G7 raising the alarm Friday over Moscow and Beijing boosting their nuclear capabilities.

US President Donald Trump has indicated his intention to conduct new nuclear tests because “other countries are doing it too.”

In March, France’s President Emmanuel Macron announced a dramatic shift in nuclear deterrence, notably an increase in the atomic arsenal, currently numbering 290 warheads.

NPT could ‘unravel’

“It is obvious that trust is eroding, both inside and outside the NPT,” Seth Sheldon of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told AFP.

He questioned the likely outcome of the four-week summit.

Decisions on the NPT have to be agreed by consensus, with the previous two conferences failing to adopt final political declarations.

In 2015, the deadlock was largely due to opposition by Israel’s arch-ally Washington to the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

In 2022, the impasse was due mainly to Russian opposition to references to Ukraine’s nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, occupied by Moscow.

This year’s summit could fall on any number of stumbling blocks.

The ongoing war in Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear program and the war there, non-nuclear states’ fears over proliferation and North Korea’s developing arsenal could all be deal-breakers.

If there is a third consecutive failure, the treaty “might not implode overnight” said Christopher King, the conference’s secretary-general.

But there is a risk “it will, over time, unravel.”

Artificial intelligence could be a prominent issue as some countries call for all sides to keep human control over nuclear weapons.