The French navy intercepted a sanctioned Russian tanker in the Mediterranean on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said on X.

“This operation was carried out … with the support of several of our allies. It was conducted in full compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he said.

The vessel was subject to international sanctions and suspected of operating under a false flag, he said.

“The activities of the shadow fleet contribute to financing (Russia’s) war of aggression against Ukraine,” Macron added on X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday blasted the EU’s lack of “political will” in countering Russian leader Vladimir Putin, during a fiery address criticising some of Kyiv’s top allies at the World Economic Forum.

The speech to the Davos elite came minutes after Zelensky had met with US President Donald Trump, a conversation which he said brought agreement about what post-war US security guarantees for Ukraine would look like.

Zelensky did not say what the security guarantees included, only that they were “done” and were ready to be signed by the leaders and ratified by the Ukrainian parliament and US Congress.

But in a marked departure from his usual warm rhetoric towards the EU, Kyiv’s main political and financial backers, Zelensky slammed what he cast as inaction, drawing parallels with the cult film “Groundhog Day” to describe the slow progress on key areas of support for Kyiv.

“What’s missing: time or political will?” he said at one point, referencing delays over the establishment of a European war crimes tribunal on the Russian invasion.

He also said Europe, without mentioning any single country, was failing to agree on how to address global problems.

“There are endless internal arguments and things left unsaid that stop Europe from uniting and speaking honestly enough to find real solutions,” Zelensky told the forum.

“Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” he added.

He said Europe looked “lost” over how to deal with the challenge presented by Trump.

“Europe looks lost trying to convince the US President to change. But he will not change. President Trump loves who he is, and he says he loves Europe, but he will not listen to this kind of Europe,” he said.

Trump had hailed a “good” meeting with Zelensky in the Swiss ski resort, hours before his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were due in Moscow for talks with Putin.

“This war has to end,” Trump told reporters including AFP when asked what message he was sending to the Russian leader.

Zelensky said the question of territory was the one outstanding issue in the talks to find an end to the war.

“It’s all about the eastern part of our country. It’s all about the land. This is the issue which we (have) not solved yet.”

Russia, which occupies around 20% of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal — but Kyiv has warned ceding ground will embolden Moscow.

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched a new research drive to increase rainfall through advanced cloud-seeding technology, offering grants of up to $1.5 million to scientists to help tackle water scarcity in the region.

The UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) said three scientists from the United States, Germany, and Australia have been selected under the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science. The winners were chosen from 140 proposals submitted by researchers from 48 countries.

Each recipient will receive up to $1.5 million spread over three years, with a maximum of $550,000 per year, to study environmentally friendly methods to improve artificial rain.

The selected scientists include Dr Michael Dixon from Echo Science Works in the US, Professor Linda Zou from Victoria University in Australia, and Dr Oliver Branch from the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

Their work will focus on using artificial intelligence, new cloud-seeding materials and land-based techniques to improve how clouds produce rain. UAE officials said AI will help identify the best clouds and increase efficiency.

The UAE receives very little natural rainfall and relies heavily on desalinated seawater. It already carries out hundreds of cloud-seeding flights each year.

Officials said the new research aims to support agriculture, strengthen water reserves and improve long-term water security in the country and the wider region.