The delegations returned to Geneva for negotiations amid American military pressure in the Middle East American and Iranian delegations met in Geneva on Thursday for a new round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and the possible easing of sanctions, as Washington simultaneously amasses military assets in the Middle East to increase pressure on Iran. The talks are widely seen as a last opportunity for diplomacy after last year’s 12-day Israel-Iran war and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, joined the discussions in Switzerland as a technical observer, making verification central to any agreement structure. The talks are being mediated by Oman, which has long served as a discreet intermediary between Tehran and Western governments. Read more Trump’s Middle East buildup and Iran talks: How close is war? Third round since June war as Oman mediates The meeting came a day after...
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A record 129 media workers lost their lives last year, most of them in Gaza, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found A record 129 media workers were killed worldwide in 2025, marking the second consecutive annual high for such deaths, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The New York-based organization found that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of these killings, making the conflict in Gaza the deadliest for members of the press since CPJ began data collection in 1992. According to a report released on Wednesday, Israeli fire killed 86 members of the press in 2025, more than 60% of them Palestinians reporting from Gaza. However, the deadliest single incident occurred in Yemen, where IDF airstrikes on two newspaper offices claimed the lives of 31 journalists and media workers. Of the 47 killings CPJ classified as targeted murders – the highest number in a decade – Israel was allegedly responsible for 81%. The organization also noted that very few tran...
Brussels is mulling concessions rather than pressure to put the bloc’s €90 billion loan to Ukraine back on track, sources have said EU officials are prepared to offer Hungary a backroom deal on Russian oil supplies in order for Budapest to lift its veto on a controversial €90 billion loan for cash-strapped Ukraine, Politico has reported. In an open letter to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on Thursday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reiterated his accusations that Kiev is trying to oust him by triggering an energy crisis ahead of the parliamentary election in April. Orban argues that Ukraine is refusing to resume supplies of Russian crude through the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline for that goal. Freezing the EU’s planned €90 billion ($106 billion) emergency loan for Ukraine was part of Hungary’s retaliation. EU officials are weighing options to overcome or bypass Budapest’s resistance, Politico said, citing anonymous diplomatic sources. The confrontational route would involve invo...
Kim Jong-un has vowed “terrible retaliatory attacks” on any aggressor during a key gathering of the ruling party North Korea will continue to expand its nuclear arsenal, both in size and capability, leader Kim Jong-un has pledged. Kim outlined the strategy during a weeklong congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. He declared North Korea’s nuclear-armed status “irreversible and permanent,” and said Pyongyang will continue to bolster its arsenal “as long as nuclear weapons exist on the earth” and as long as the country is threatened by “US imperialists and their followers,” state media reported on Thursday. “We have a long-term plan to strengthen the national nuclear force on an annual basis in the future and will concentrate on increasing the number of nuclear weapons and expanding the means and space for nuclear operation,” Kim said. At a military parade on Wednesday held during the party gathering in Pyongyang, Kim warned that North Korea would “deliver terrible retali...
Washington declined to endorse Kiev’s statement calling for an unconditional ceasefire The US has abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a Kiev-backed resolution condemning Russia’s actions in the Ukraine conflict. The resolution on Tuesday, delivered four years after the escalation of the conflict, urged an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire. In the UN General Assembly vote on the document, 107 countries supported it, 12 – including Belarus, Iran, and North Korea – voted against, and 51, including the US, Armenia, Brazil, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Serbia, and Uzbekistan, abstained. UN General Assembly President and former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told ARD that the US delegation “deliberately wanted to remove” the requirement of a “lasting and just peace” from the resolution. “The Americans have always voted for this resolution before,” she said. Now, “for the first time, they haven’t voted for it,” Baerbock noted, claiming the stance was “frustrati...
Moscow has repeatedly ruled out accepting a NATO military presence in the neighboring country Western European nations will not deploy troops to Ukraine without Russian consent, The Telegraph reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources. The UK-French initiative to deploy troops to Ukraine has been promoted as a deterrent against Russia which could follow a potential peace deal. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has repeatedly rejected the idea of NATO countries stationing troops there. A senior diplomatic source told the British newspaper that members of the pro-Kiev ‘coalition of the willing’ have privately conceded that they would “only send our troops if there’s Russian consent.” Moscow’s warnings that foreign troops would be considered legitimate military targets are taken seriously, and given that risk, “you need to send a different kind of force,” the source said, adding that Russian opposition has had “a tremendous effect” on the discussions. A European defense sou...