Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed holding “direct talks” with Ukraine on Thursday in Istanbul, as European leaders and the United States attempt to put pressure on Moscow to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in order to bring an end to the three-year conflict. “We would like to start immediately,…

It’s a proposal that the Kremlin can neither reject nor accept, but one that may force it into an awkward choice, revealing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s true appetite for his brutal war of choice. Europe’s leaders have grasped the nettle of whether peace talks over Ukraine can lead anywhere meaningful,…

It comes after US special envoy Steve Witkoff warned on Friday that if the next set of talks in Oman on Sunday were not productive, “then they won’t continue and we’ll have to take a different route.” “The United States will ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, but…

Pope Leo XIV indicated on Saturday that his papacy will follow closely in the footsteps of the late Pope Francis, telling church cardinals that they should take up that “precious legacy” and identifying artificial intelligence as a main challenge for working people and “human dignity.” Pope Leo, born in Chicago…

The India-Pakistan conflict was taking a dramatic turn for the worse, pitching the nuclear-armed neighbors into a dangerous spiral of tit-for-tat strikes. Then, out of the blue, US President Donald Trump on Saturday said the US had brokered an end to the fighting. On his Truth Social platform, he made…

India and Pakistan agreed to an immediate ceasefire on Saturday, unexpectedly halting the worst fighting in decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors, just when their tit-for-tat strikes appeared to be spiraling out of control. Although US President Donald Trump was the first to announce the ceasefire and claimed credit for it,…

Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli left the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City, where he had sought refuge more than a year ago after the courts upheld a money laundering sentence against him, and headed to Colombia where he has received political asylum, the government said late Saturday. Panama’s foreign ministry…

They are considered one of the world’s most dangerous, and indiscriminate, weapons. Yet five European countries have turned their backs on an international treaty on the use of landmines, citing the growing threat from Moscow. Finland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – which all border Russia – have made moves…

Police on a Japanese holiday island have arrested three Chinese nationals after thousands of protected hermit crabs were found stuffed into multiple suitcases. The three suspects – Liao Zhibin, 24, Song Zhenhao, 26, and Guo Jiawei, 27 – were found to have 160 kilograms (353 pounds) of the live crustaceans…