By SEUNG MIN KIM and MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s not an official state visit, but the White House is preparing to host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week with the pomp and circumstance that is typical of one.
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The crown prince’s day at the White House next Tuesday will begin with an arrival ceremony on the sweeping South Lawn and a subsequent greeting on the South Portico, according to a senior White House official.
Then Trump will host him in the Oval Office for a bilateral meeting, followed by a signing and lunch in the Cabinet Room where the U.S. and Saudi Arabia will formalize multiple economic and defense agreements, said the official, granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s planning.
Later in the evening, the White House will hold an East Room dinner hosted and planned by first lady Melania Trump.
His visit is billed as an official working visit because Prince Mohammed is not technically a head of state, the official said.
On Wednesday, dozens of CEOs are expected to attend a meeting of the U.S.-Saudi Business Council at the Kennedy Center, the fine arts facility that is now led and managed by Trump loyalists. Though the U.S. president’s attendance is not yet confirmed for the business meeting, he is likely to attend, the senior White House official said.
Trump’s relationship with the Gulf nations has been a top foreign policy priority for the president in his second term. His first major trip abroad was a tour of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where Trump was welcomed with an exceptionally rare Air Force One escort by royal Saudi Air Force F-15s and a state dinner at a UNESCO heritage site.
“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said as he met with Prince Mohammed in the royal palace in Riyadh. Later, Trump described Prince Mohammed as an “incredible man” and “my friend.”
It also marks the first trip to the United States by the crown prince since the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018 during Trump’s first term. U.S. intelligence agencies have said Prince Mohammed likely directed the killing, resulting in sanctions against several Saudi officials. He denies his involvement, and both the Trump and Biden administrations have worked to mend ties with Saudi Arabia since.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker as it traveled through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on Friday, a U.S. official said, turning the ship into Iranian territorial waters in the first-such interdiction in months in the strategic waterway.
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Iran did not acknowledge the seizure, though it comes as Tehran has been increasingly warning it can strike back after facing a 12-day war in June with Israel that saw the U.S. strike Iranian nuclear sites.
The ship, the Talara, had been traveling from Ajman, United Arab Emirates, onward to Singapore when Iranian forces intercepted it, said the U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. A U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone had been circling above the area where the Talara was for hours on Friday observing the seizure, flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed.
A private security firm, Ambrey, described the assault as involving three small boats approaching the Talara.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center separately acknowledged the incident, saying a possible “state activity” forced the Talara to turn into Iranian territorial waters. Cyprus-based Columbia Shipmanagement later said in a statement that it had “lost contact” with the tanker, which was carrying high sulphur gasoil.
The company has “notified the relevant authorities and is working closely with all relevant parties — including maritime security agencies and the vessel owner — to restore contact with the vessel,” the firm said. “The safety of the crew remains our foremost priority.”
Those attacks found themselves subsumed by the Iranian-backed Houthis assaults targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which drastically reduced shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor.
The years of tensions between Iran and the West, coupled with the situation in the Gaza Strip, exploded into a full-scale 12-day war in June.
Iran long has threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes. The U.S. Navy has long patrolled the Mideast through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterways open.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary will challenge the European Union’s plan to end Russian energy imports and take the case to an EU court, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday.
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Speaking on state radio, Orbán accused the bloc of trying to sidestep his veto power over sanctions on Russian energy by using trade rules instead in its plan to phase out all imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.
“We are turning to the European Court of Justice in this matter,” Orbán said Friday. “This is a flagrant violation of European law, the rule of law and European cooperation … They will pay a very high price for this.”
Hungary remains heavily dependent on Russian fossil fuels and has sought exemptions and threatened to veto EU sanctions since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. During a visit to Washington last week, Orbán secured an exemption from U.S. sanctions on two Russian energy companies following a White House meeting with President Donald Trump.
Numerous U.S. officials have said the waiver, which ensures Russian oil and gas will continue to flow to Hungary, will last one year, though Orbán has insisted it is indefinite. On Friday, Orbán credited his close personal relationship with Trump for receiving the exemption, and said it would remain in place as long as both he and the president remain in office.
The Hungarian leader on Friday said he was “also exploring other means of a non-legal nature” to avoid falling under the EU’s planned Russian energy phase-out, but declined to say what they were.
By HANNA ARHIROVA, SAMYA KULLAB and VASILISA STEPANENKO, Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Kyiv early Friday, killing six people, leaving gaping holes in apartment buildings and starting fires as the sound of explosions boomed across the city and lit up the night sky. A pregnant woman was among at least 35 people wounded, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia used at least 430 drones and 18 missiles in the nighttime attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
An apartment is seen damaged after a Russian attack on residential neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People hide in a metro station, being used as a bomb shelter, during a Russian drones attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Municipal workers look at a residential building damaged after a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
In this image taken from video, an explosion is seen in the distance as a Russian attack targets Ukraine’s Kyiv region on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.(AP Photo)
A residential building is seen damaged after a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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An apartment is seen damaged after a Russian attack on residential neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Russia has waged a devastating aerial campaign against Ukraine since its all-out invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts this year to stop the fighting have so far come to nothing.
Friday’s aerial assault, which also targeted Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast, was mostly aimed at Kyiv, where drones and missiles smashed into high-rise apartment blocks, according to Zelenskyy.
It was “a specially calculated attack to cause as much harm as possible to people and civilians,” he said in a post on Telegram.
Moscow denies targeting civilian areas, with the Russian Defense Ministry saying Friday it carried out an overnight strike on Ukraine’s “military-industrial and energy facilities.” Ukrainian officials scoff at those claims, showing repeated damage to homes and public buildings.
The attack was the biggest on Kyiv in almost three weeks. Most recent Russian aerial attacks have aimed at electricity infrastructure around the country ahead of the bitter winter months.
Ukraine used its American-made Patriot air defense systems to repel the attack and shot down 14 missiles, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader has pleaded with foreign supporters to send more of the sophisticated systems.
Top European defense officials meeting in Berlin on Friday vowed to keep up their support for Ukraine. Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal joined the meeting remotely.
The Azerbaijan Embassy in Kyiv was damaged by debris from an Iskander missile — a development that Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said was “unacceptable.” Azerbaijan is a key transport corridor for Russia’s trade with Iran and other partners in the Middle East.
In the Odesa region, Russian drones struck a busy street on market day in Chornomorsk, killing two people and wounding 11 others, including a 19-month-old girl, regional military administration chief Oleh Kiper said.
‘My hair was on fire’
Kyiv residents told of harrowing escapes and near misses in the dead of night.
Mariia Kalchenko said it was a miracle she survived after her building was hit.
“I didn’t hear anything, I just realized that my hair was on fire,” the 46-year-old volunteer rescue dog handler told The Associated Press.
She turned on her flashlight and saw that her dog had moved away in fright. “I turned around and saw that there was no wall, and there was a neighbor’s apartment, the neighbor was screaming, there was no door, and the flames were going from the front door into the apartment,” she said.
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Oleh Hudyma, 59, said he became aware of the attack and intended to go to a bomb shelter but she wasn’t quick enough.
“I got up, got dressed, went out, and there was an explosion. I couldn’t hear the (drone) engine running, just an explosion, flames, everything flew,” he said. “I was in the kitchen and just fell to the floor.”
Iryna Synyavska, 62, said three people were killed in two apartments next to hers.
“My neighbor and his father were killed by the ceiling that collapsed. In the next door (apartment), an elderly woman lived there, she was over 80,” Synyavska said. “Her daughter was visiting her. Her body was only just recovered because the walls fell down.”
Eight of the capital’s 10 districts reported damage. In the wider Kyiv region, Russian strikes damaged critical infrastructure, the head of the regional military administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, said.
Russia accuses Ukraine of hitting civilian sites
Ukraine has responded by launching its own domestically developed drones and missiles against targets on Russian soil, especially oil refineries and depots that provide Moscow with income and manufacturing plants that supply the armed forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defense forces shot down 216 Ukrainian drones overnight over a number of Russian regions, including the annexed Crimea. It did not mention missiles.
However, Zelenskyy said Ukraine used a modification of domestically produced Neptune missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of hitting civilian facilities and claimed the overnight strike on Kyiv came in response to that.
Over 60 Ukrainian drones were intercepted over the southern Krasnodar region that borders Crimea, according to the Defense Ministry. A total of 45 drones were destroyed over the Saratov region deeper inside Russia, while another 19 were shot down over Crimea.
Attack on Russia’s Novorossiysk port
In Novorossiysk, a port city in the Krasnodar region, an attack damaged an oil depot at the Sheskharis transshipment complex, as well as unidentified “coastal structures,” local authorities said.
A source in Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed the Novorossiysk attack to The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Novorossiysk is the second biggest port in Russia for oil exports, the source said, adding that the attack damaged oil-loading stands at the piers, pipeline infrastructure and the units, sparking a large fire.
Ukraine also struck the positions of a S-300/S-400 air defense system in Novorossiysk, the source said.
Falling drone debris also damaged a civilian vessel in the port, and three crew members were hospitalized with injuries, Russian officials said. Several residential buildings were also damaged, and a man from one of those buildings was hospitalized with injuries, officials said.
In the Saratov region, Gov. Roman Busargin said that the attack damage unspecified “civilian infrastructure.” Unconfirmed media reports said that an oil refinery was hit.
Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
