In this Nov. 10, 2016, file photo, a name of Samsung Biologics Co. is displayed at the Korea Exchange in Seoul, South Korea.

The U.S. is on pace to leapfrog both Saudi Arabia and Russia and reclaim the title of the world's biggest oil producer for the first time since the 1970s. The latest forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that U.S. output will grow next year to 11.8 million barrels a day.

US president Donald Trump is set to touch down in Britain for a highly controversial visit after sparking a new firestorm on the international stage. Fresh from a fierce row with American allies at a Nato summit, Mr Trump begins a four day trip to the UK that is expected to leave taxpayers with a police and security bill of up to 10 million.

Opposition leaders in Scotland have urged ministers to rule out the use of a Scottish Government-owned airport for Donald Trump's visit. The US president is expected to travel north of the border on Friday, and is believed to be spending the weekend playing golf at his Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire.

Three-year-old Walter Cullen might have been breaking royal protocol by trying to touch her hair, but the Duchess of Sussex reacted with nothing but smiles. Meghan and Prince Harry were on the second day of their trip to Ireland when they met the youngster the Croke Park stadium in Dublin.

In a combative start to his NATO visit, President Donald Trump asserted Wednesday that a pipeline project has made Germany "totally controlled" by and "captive to Russia" and blasted NATO allies' defense spending, opening what was expected to be a fraught summit with a list of grievances involving American allies. Trump, in a testy exchange with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, took issue with the U.S. protecting Germany when the European nation is making deals with Russia.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Abe on Wednesday would visit an evacuation center in Kurashiki, a city where a river broke through an embankment and swept through residential areas, killing more than 40 people. Tens of thousands of rescue and recovery workers and volunteers dug through the debris, as the search for dozens still missing enters its fifth day.

It is implausible that the two Novichok poisonings are not linked, according to the head of UK counter-terrorism policing. But he believed it was unlikely the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March, and the poisonings nearby of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley 10 days ago, were separate.

"He is recovering at his home and will be fine," Clooney spokesman Stan Rosenfield told The Associated Press in an email. The John Paul II hospital in Olbia confirmed Clooney was treated there and released after Tuesday's accident, in which Clooney's scooter and a blue Mercedes sedan collided along a curve in the road.

Former prime ministers were among those paying tribute to statesman and war hero Lord Carrington of Upton, who has died at the age of 99. The last surviving member of Sir Winston Churchill's post-war government, Peter Carrington famously resigned as Margaret Thatcher's Foreign Secretary in 1982 after taking responsibility for the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands. He had previously chaired the Lancaster House talks in 1979 which led to the establishment of the state of Zimbabwe, and later served as secretary-general of Nato from 1984-88.

China has allowed the widow of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to be freed from house arrest and leave for Berlin. The release of Liu Xia, who has never been charged with any crime, is the result of years of campaigning by Western governments and activists and comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the death of dissident Liu Xiaobo while he was serving a prison sentence for inciting subversion.

Firefighters with rescue dogs search for missing people after heavy rain hit southwestern Japan, in Kumano town, Hiroshima prefecture, Monday, July 9, 2018. Rescuers in southwestern Japan dug up more bodies Monday as they searched for dozens still missing after heavy rains caused severe flooding and left residents to return to their homes unsure where to start the cleanup.

A speeding driver who killed two young brothers in a hit-and-run while high on drugs could have his nine-year jail term increased. Robert Brown, who was already banned from driving, was travelling at more than twice the speed limit and had a cocktail of drugs in his system when he mowed down Corey and Casper Platt-May, aged six and two.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in Monday under a new governing system that grants him sweeping executive powers, which critics say give him far too much control. A former Istanbul mayor, Erdogan has been at the helm of Turkey since 2003 as prime minister and then the first directly elected president since 2014.

President Donald Trump voiced confidence Monday that North Korea's leader would "honor" his commitment to denuclearize, despite Pyongyang's accusation that the U.S. is making "gangster-like" demands in negotiations. North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump meet in Singapore, June 12, 2018 - Photo: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo It was Trump's first public response since North Korea gave an angry send-off at the weekend to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after he visited the authoritarian nation amid growing skepticism that the North intends to give up its nukes.

Charity campaigner Sarah Brown will be joined by celebrities on a 117-mile hike to raise money for girls' education. Mrs Brown, wife of former prime minister Gordon Brown, will attempt the Fife coastal path along with Great British Bake Off presenter Sandi Toksvig and her wife Debbie, actress Arabella Weir and author Kathy Lette.

Proud parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Louis's older siblings Prince George and Princess Charlotte will be there for the service on Monday in the Chapel Royal at London's St James's Palace. As he is taken to and from the service, it will be the first time Louis has been seen other than in photographs released by Kensington Palace since making his public debut on the steps of the Lindo Wing.