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DUBAI/RIYADH, Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to attend Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative conference in Miami, marking his second consecutive appearance at the event since ‌returning to the White House, people familiar with the matter said.

Trump is expected to attend ‌a dinner on the first day hosted by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund PIF, two people ​said, asking not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. The event takes place from March 26-29.

The FII Institute, the Saudi government and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump's engagement with the FII platform underscores the importance his administration places on Gulf economic partnerships.

Saudi Arabia ‌and the U.S. finalised a series ⁠of investment and defense agreements during the crown prince's meeting with Trump in November, with Riyadh boosting its commitment to invest in the United States to $1 ⁠trillion - expanding significantly from the $600 billion in deals outlined during Trump's visit to the kingdom in May.

SAUDI ARABIA'S VISION 2030 PIVOTS TO PRIVATE SECTOR

The potential high-profile attendance comes as Saudi Arabia recalibrates its ambitious Vision 2030 economic ​transformation ​program amid a shortage of funding for mega-projects that ​were part of the kingdom's wider diversification ‌efforts.

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Saudi officials have increasingly pivoted toward securing buy-in and collaboration from the private sector after initial plans relied heavily on government funding.

The FII Miami event would provide a platform for Saudi Arabia to court North and South American business leaders and investors at a time when the kingdom is repositioning its economic agenda.

The gathering also takes place against a backdrop of deepening rivalry between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, ‌traditionally close Gulf allies, who have increasingly found themselves ​at odds over regional economic competition and strategic priorities.

The two ​nations have been vying for position as the ​Middle East's premier business and financial hub, with the UAE's rapid rise in ‌sectors from finance to technology creating friction ​with Saudi Arabia's own ambitions ​under Vision 2030. FII competes with Abu Dhabi's Milken Institute Global Conference, which takes place in Los Angeles in May.

The main FII conference, usually held each fall in Riyadh and dubbed "Davos ​in the Desert," has become a ‌flagship event for Saudi Arabia to showcase its economic vision and attract global investment.

The ​organization has expanded beyond Riyadh to host events in other major cities.

(Reporting by Hadeel ​Al Sayegh and Timour Azhari; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

Have you ever wished to meet a celebrity eye-to-eye? While we can't offer exactly that service, we're giving you the chance to stare right into their eyes – awkward silence and vulnerability excluded!

In this quiz, you'll be provided with 30 close-up shots of celebrity eyes, and your job will be to guess who those peepers belong to. Sounds easy? We'll see…

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Image credits:Beatrice Rossi Prudente

Whose eyes are these?

◯ Jude Law◯ Leonardo DiCaprio◯ Christian Slater◯ Edward Norton

Which celebrity's eyes are these?

◯ Avril Lavigne◯ Katy Perry◯ Gwen Stefani◯ Kelly Clarkson

Whose peepers are captured here?

◯ Paul McCartney◯ David Bowie◯ Mick Jagger◯ Rod Stewart

Who's staring at you here?

◯ Nicole Kidman◯ Jessica Chastain◯ Patricia Clarkson◯ Julianne Moore

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Which celebrity is looking off into the distance?

◯ Brandon Lee◯ Jonny Lee Miller◯ Dev Patel◯ Keanu Reeves

Match the eyes to the name.

◯ Adele◯ Ellie Goulding◯ Paloma Faith◯ Florence Welch

Which celebrity is making eye contact with you?

Whose eyes are these?

◯ Justin Bieber◯ Justin Timberlake◯ Charlie Puth◯ Shawn Mendes

🧠 Curious to see the rest? Take the full quiz here 🧠

MUNICH (AP) — Anannual gatheringof top international security figures that last year set the tone for a growing rift between the United States and Europe opens Friday, bringing together many top European officials with U.S. Secretary of StateMarco Rubioand others.

The Munich Security Conference opens with a speech by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of 15 heads of state or government from European Union countries whom organizers expect to attend.

The many other expected guests at the conference that runs until Sunday include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In keeping with the conference's tradition, there will also be a large delegation of members of the U.S. Congress.

"Trans-Atlantic relations have been the backbone of this conference since it was founded in 1963 ... and trans-Atlantic relations are currently in a significant crisis of confidence and credibility," conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters earlier this week. "So it is particularly welcome that the American side has such great interest in Munich."

At last year's conference, held a few weeks into U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, Vice President JD Vance stunnedEuropean leadersbylecturing themabout the state of democracy on the continent.

A series ofTrump statements and movestargeting allies followed in the months after that — including, last month, his later-abandoned threat to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to secure U.S. control ofGreenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

With Rubio heading the U.S. delegation this year, European leaders can hope for a less contentious approach more focused on traditional global security concerns, though a philosophically similar one. Rubio will face a heavy lift if he wants to calm the waters, however.

"In the end it's about trust: do we trust each other as partners and can this lack of trust be repaired?" said Claudia Major, a senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. "Particularly Greenland has been a fundamental change for Europeans. That one NATO ally threatens another NATO ally has deeply affected European trust in the trans-Atlantic relationship."

FRANKFURT, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Stark Defence took on new ‌funding from investors a few ‌weeks ago, increasing the overall value ​of the German startup firm and drone maker to more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), ‌Manager Magazin ⁠reported on Friday.

Without specifying its sources, the magazine ⁠said Peter Thiel's Founders Fund contributed a "double-digit" million euro ​amount, while ​European investors ​also took part ‌in the funding round.

Stark did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Manager Magazin said the company declined ‌to comment.

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Documents seen ​by Reuters showed ​on Tuesday ​that the German government ‌plans to order ​strike drones ​worth 536 million euros from Stark and from Helsing, ​another ‌German defence contractor.

($1 = 0.8434 euros)

(Reporting ​by Ludwig Burger, editing ​by Thomas Seythal)

MERAUX, La. (AP) — Across the calm waters behind a pumping station near Lake Borgne, hundreds of saplings stand out in the mist, wrapped in white plastic cylinders.

To get there and to other sites like it, organizers have ferried dozens of volunteers week after week in airboats. They have a trailer equipped with supplies. Rubber boots in all different sizes. Bins full of snacks for the end of a hard day's work.

One day, they hope to see 30,000 fully grown trees like bald cypress and water tupelo at this and other sites that restore the natural barrier ofwetlandsinto the protective forest it once was. The goal is for the roots of these native trees to hold the earth around New Orleans in place as it slips further below sea level, create habitat for wildlife and help shield the city from storms.

Much of that natural barrier was lost afterHurricane Katrina, which killed over 1,000 people and caused over $100 billion in damage in 2005. But many have been working since then to restore the land, and near the end of a long effort run by local environmental groups, organizers are reflecting on the roots they've helped put down — a more solid ecosystem, so different from the degraded marsh they started with.

"We're one part of a larger movement to resist this sort of 'doomerism' mindset, and to show that recovery is possible," said Christina Lehew, executive director ofCommon Ground Relief, one of the organizations working on the tree planting. "When we use our imaginations to envision the past and the vast amount of wetlands landscapes that we have lost, we know that likely we'll never return to that pristine image of the past. But we can gain something back."

Why organizations have joined forces to plant trees in wetlands

In other locations around New Orleans, cypress trees planted years ago tower over dense thickets rich with other native plants. They tell the story of what could have been, and what restorers are trying to bring back.Before the logging industry, before the oil and gas industry, before anyone built levees to contain the Mississippi River, the Delta naturally ebbed and flowed and flooded as the river deposited sediment on the Gulf Coast. The plants that thrived in that ecosystem formed protective estuaries.But then the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 burst through levees in dozens of places. Hundreds of people died and the water caused catastrophic damage across several states. After that, the government initiated a new era of levee building. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had also constructed a shipping channel called the Mississippi River—Gulf Outlet Canal (MRGO), which ultimately became a path for Katrina's storm surge into the city of New Orleans.Those engineering decisions worsenedKatrina's destruction. They allowed saltwater into freshwater ecosystems around the city, poisoning many of the trees. And so the city was exposed to future hurricanes, and lost the living guardians whose roots held the land in place.In 2009, the MRGO was shut down to cut off further saltwater intrusion, and environmental groups started reforesting. Eventually, about five years ago, several organizations came together as acollectiveto apply for federal and state funding for a bigger project. Spreading two large grants across different volunteer bases, planting in different areas and using different techniques, they're getting closer to that 30,000-tree goal. One of the largest groups, theCoalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, has planted about 10,000 of its 15,000-tree quota, said Andrew Ferris, senior coordinator for their native plants program. They'll finish by next year, he said."In our wildest dreams we never thought we'd be able to plant some of the areas that we are now planting," said Blaise Pezold, who started planting trees around 2009 and is now coastal and environmental program director for theMeraux Foundation, one of the partner organizations. "It was thought to be too low, too salty, Katrina messed it up too much, and we would have to focus on areas that were easier to get into."The closing of the MRGO and the drop in salinity levels changed all that. "The Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective has kind of allowed us to be very adventurous in the sites we choose," Pezold added.A way of processing grief, and rebuilding for the futureFor many of the organizers in Louisiana who have been helping with restoration and recovery efforts, the project has been a way to cope with living in the wake of a natural disaster.Katrina hit the day after Ashe Burke's 8th birthday. "It still affects everybody that went through it, and ... it changed us all. I mean, we had our lives ripped out from underneath us in a day," said Burke, the wetlands restoration specialist for Common Ground Relief, where Lehew also works. "It still does hurt in some ways, you know? But we gotta keep going on and the sun rises in the morning."That's also something important to teach the next generation, said Rollin Black, who works with theCenter for Sustainable Engagement and Development, one of the tree-planting partner organizations. He also has family in New Orleans, and he said restoring the environment has been a way to act on the problems he saw. Seeing kids participate helps."That brings a little bit of joy to my heart that they're actually inspired by what we're doing. So maybe they could come back or maybe they have some reason to live in New Orleans," he said.___Follow Melina Walling on X@MelinaWallingand Bluesky@melinawalling.bsky.social. Follow Joshua A. Bickel onInstagram,BlueskyandX@joshuabickel.___The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas atAP.org.

In other locations around New Orleans, cypress trees planted years ago tower over dense thickets rich with other native plants. They tell the story of what could have been, and what restorers are trying to bring back.

Before the logging industry, before the oil and gas industry, before anyone built levees to contain the Mississippi River, the Delta naturally ebbed and flowed and flooded as the river deposited sediment on the Gulf Coast. The plants that thrived in that ecosystem formed protective estuaries.

But then the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 burst through levees in dozens of places. Hundreds of people died and the water caused catastrophic damage across several states. After that, the government initiated a new era of levee building. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had also constructed a shipping channel called the Mississippi River—Gulf Outlet Canal (MRGO), which ultimately became a path for Katrina's storm surge into the city of New Orleans.

Those engineering decisions worsenedKatrina's destruction. They allowed saltwater into freshwater ecosystems around the city, poisoning many of the trees. And so the city was exposed to future hurricanes, and lost the living guardians whose roots held the land in place.

In 2009, the MRGO was shut down to cut off further saltwater intrusion, and environmental groups started reforesting. Eventually, about five years ago, several organizations came together as acollectiveto apply for federal and state funding for a bigger project. Spreading two large grants across different volunteer bases, planting in different areas and using different techniques, they're getting closer to that 30,000-tree goal. One of the largest groups, theCoalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, has planted about 10,000 of its 15,000-tree quota, said Andrew Ferris, senior coordinator for their native plants program. They'll finish by next year, he said.

"In our wildest dreams we never thought we'd be able to plant some of the areas that we are now planting," said Blaise Pezold, who started planting trees around 2009 and is now coastal and environmental program director for theMeraux Foundation, one of the partner organizations. "It was thought to be too low, too salty, Katrina messed it up too much, and we would have to focus on areas that were easier to get into."

The closing of the MRGO and the drop in salinity levels changed all that. "The Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective has kind of allowed us to be very adventurous in the sites we choose," Pezold added.

A way of processing grief, and rebuilding for the future

For many of the organizers in Louisiana who have been helping with restoration and recovery efforts, the project has been a way to cope with living in the wake of a natural disaster.

Katrina hit the day after Ashe Burke's 8th birthday. "It still affects everybody that went through it, and ... it changed us all. I mean, we had our lives ripped out from underneath us in a day," said Burke, the wetlands restoration specialist for Common Ground Relief, where Lehew also works. "It still does hurt in some ways, you know? But we gotta keep going on and the sun rises in the morning."

That's also something important to teach the next generation, said Rollin Black, who works with theCenter for Sustainable Engagement and Development, one of the tree-planting partner organizations. He also has family in New Orleans, and he said restoring the environment has been a way to act on the problems he saw. Seeing kids participate helps.

"That brings a little bit of joy to my heart that they're actually inspired by what we're doing. So maybe they could come back or maybe they have some reason to live in New Orleans," he said.

Follow Melina Walling on X@MelinaWallingand Bluesky@melinawalling.bsky.social. Follow Joshua A. Bickel onInstagram,BlueskyandX@joshuabickel.

The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas atAP.org.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James became theoldest player in NBA history with a triple-doublewhen he put up 28 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in the Los Angeles Lakers' 124-104 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.

At 41 years and 44 days old, James broke the record held by Karl Malone, who recorded a triple-double for the Lakers when he was 40 years and 127 days old.

James scored 14 points in a dominant first quarter, and had 22 points and 12 assists heading to the fourth. He grabbed his 10th rebound with 2:06 to play and checked out moments later, wrapping up another sensational game in his unprecedented 23rd NBA season.

James is headed to the All-Star Game this weekend after being selected for the 22nd time. He got his most recent triple-double on Feb. 1, 2025.

Naji Marshall and Max Christie scored 19 points apiece for the Mavericks, who lost their ninth straight to fall into their longest skid in 28 seasons.

NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic didn't suit up against his former team, missing his fourth straight game for the Lakers with a mild hamstring strain. Star rookie Cooper Flagg sat out with a sprained foot for Dallas that will prevent him from participating in All-Star weekend at nearby Intuit Dome.

James and Austin Reaves sat out the Lakers' loss to San Antonio on Tuesday for health maintenance, but both returned in a comfortable victory. Reaves had 18 points and six assists.

Rui Hachimura scored 21 points for the Lakers, who have won seven of 11.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said he expects Doncic to return after the All-Star break. Redick didn't know whether the Slovenian superstar will play in the All-Star Game after leading the NBA in votes.

Up next

Mavericks: At Minnesota on Friday, Feb. 20.

Lakers: Host the Clippers on Friday, Feb. 20.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/NBA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James became theoldest player in NBA history with a triple-doublewhen he put up 28 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in the Los Angeles Lakers' 124-104 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.

At 41 years and 44 days old, James broke the record held by Karl Malone, who recorded a triple-double for the Lakers when he was 40 years and 127 days old.

James scored 14 points in a dominant first quarter, and had 22 points and 12 assists heading to the fourth. He grabbed his 10th rebound with 2:06 to play and checked out moments later, wrapping up another sensational game in his unprecedented 23rd NBA season.

James is headed to the All-Star Game this weekend after being selected for the 22nd time. He got his most recent triple-double on Feb. 1, 2025.

Naji Marshall and Max Christie scored 19 points apiece for the Mavericks, who lost their ninth straight to fall into their longest skid in 28 seasons.

NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic didn't suit up against his former team, missing his fourth straight game for the Lakers with a mild hamstring strain. Star rookie Cooper Flagg sat out with a sprained foot for Dallas that will prevent him from participating in All-Star weekend at nearby Intuit Dome.

James and Austin Reaves sat out the Lakers' loss to San Antonio on Tuesday for health maintenance, but both returned in a comfortable victory. Reaves had 18 points and six assists.

Rui Hachimura scored 21 points for the Lakers, who have won seven of 11.

BUCKS 110, THUNDER 93

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Former Thunder forward Ousmane Dieng had 19 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and four blocks, and Milwaukee beat Oklahoma City.

The Thunder traded Dieng just before the deadline. The 6-foot-9 Frenchman was the G-League Finals MVP as the Oklahoma City Blue won the championship in 2024 and a Thunder reserve.

Both teams were missing important pieces.

Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers was out attending a funeral, and assistant Darvin Ham filled in. Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo was out with a right calf strain.

Oklahoma City played without reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain) and co-star Jalen Williams (right hamstring strain). Both will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break.

AJ Green scored 17 points for the Bucks, and obby Portis added 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Isaiah Joe scored 17 points and Chet Holmgren added 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who were coming off road wins against the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix.

TRAIL BLAZERS 135, JAZZ 119

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Jrue Holiday scored a season-high 31 points and Donovan Clingan added 23 points and 18 rebounds as Portland beat Utah — hours after the Jazzlost Jaren Jackson Jr. to knee surgeryand werefined $500,000 by the NBAfor sitting healthy stars.

Clingan also had a career-high seven assists and three blocks. Holiday had nine rebounds and seven assists to lead Portland (27-29) to its fourth victory in five games.

Jerami Grant added 18 points and Scoot Henderson scored 15 in his fourth game this season.

Brice Sensabaugh had 28 points while Ace Bailey, Kyle Filipowski and Isaiah Collier each scored 15 for Utah (18-38).

In his first NBA game, Utah two-way player Blake Hinson scored 11 points and hit a 3-pointer to pull the Jazz to 111-108. But the Blazers responded with an 11-2 run capped by Holiday's layup to clinch the win.

Clingan sparked a 10-0 spurt with dominating play on both ends to give the Trail Blazers a 75-65 lead. Portland outscored the short-handed Jazz 40-23 in the third quarter to take control.

Jackson, who led the Jazz to a 2-1 record since arriving from Memphis in a trade last week, did not play. In a post-trade physical exam, Jackson was diagnosed with a benign growth in his left knee and will have surgery next week.