Author: AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told US counterpart Donald Trump in a call on Sunday that he supported his “direct and decisive” initiatives to end the three-year war in Ukraine, his office said. NATO member Türkiye has sought to maintain good relations with both of its Black Sea neighbours since the Russian invasion three years ago and has twice hosted direct talks aimed at ending the war. In his phone call with Trump on Sunday, Erdoğan said he “supported determined and decisive efforts by American President Trump to put an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine,” adding that…

Pope Francis acknowledged on Sunday being fragile and “facing a period of trial”, as he thanked well-wishers for prayers in a message from hospital, where he has been receiving treatment for pneumonia. The 88-year-old pope, hospitalised since February 14, sent a particularly personal message to the faithful published by the Vatican, as he once again missed delivering the traditional Angelus prayer in person. “I am sharing these thoughts with you while I am facing a period of trial, and I join with so many brothers and sisters who are sick: fragile, at this time, like me,” wrote the pope. “Our…

French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that Europe and the United States had to put pressure on Russia to accept a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine. Russia “does not give the impression it sincerely wants peace,” Macron said in a statement provided to AFP following a Saturday morning video conference of countries backing Ukraine organised by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. On the contrary, Russian President Vladimir Putin is “escalating the fighting” and “wants to get everything, then negotiate,” he said. “Russia must respond clearly and the pressure must be clear, in conjunction with the United States, to obtain this ceasefire,”…

An Israeli negotiating team is currently discussing the hostages issue with Egyptian mediators in Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday. “Under the directive of Prime Minister Netanyahu, representatives of the negotiation team are currently meeting in Egypt with senior Egyptian officials to discuss the issue of the hostages,” the statement said, a day after announcing that a team would continue indirect ceasefire negotiations with Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Yemen’s Huthis vowed to respond to deadly strikes on the capital Sanaa on Saturday after US President Donald Trump said Washington had launched a “decisive” action against the Iran-backed rebels. “This aggression will not pass without a response, and our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to confront escalation with escalation,” the rebels’ political bureau said in a statement on their Al-Masirah television.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday informed the head of the Shin Bet, the country’s internal security agency, that he will ask the government to dismiss him. “Due to ongoing lack of trust, I have decided to bring a proposal to the government to end the tenure of the Shin Bet chief” Ronen Bar, the prime minister said in a statement.

Fifty-one people have died and over 100 have been injured in a nightclub fire in North Macedonia, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said at a press conference on Sunday in front of the police station in the town of Kočani, where the tragedy occurred. The fire broke out at around 2:30 am (0130 GMT) on Sunday when the popular local band DNK was performing at the nightclub Puls, the minister said. A spark machine used for lighting effects triggered the fire, according to the current state of investigations, he said, adding that the sparks ignited the ceiling construction, which was made…

President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday put journalists at Voice of America and other US-funded broadcasters on leave, abruptly freezing outlets long seen as critical to countering a Russian and Chinese information offensive. Hundreds of reporters and other staff at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other outlets received a weekend email saying they will be barred from their offices and should surrender press passes, office-issued telephones and other equipment. Trump, who has already eviscerated the US aid agency and Education Department, on Friday issued an executive order listing the US Agency for Global Media as among “elements…

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched an attack on a United States aircraft carrier in the Red Sea on Sunday, hours after Washington hit the Iran-backed rebels with deadly strikes. “In response to this (US) aggression, the armed forces conducted a military operation… targeting the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its accompanying warships”, the group said in a statement, adding it had launched 18 missiles and a drone.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Sunday threatened a “decisive” response to any attack, after US President Donald Trump ordered a wave of air strikes against Yemen’s Huthi rebels and warned Tehran to stop backing the group. On Saturday, Trump said the United States had launched “decisive and powerful military action” to end the Huthi threat to Red Sea shipping, and warned Iran’s support for the rebels “must end immediately”. A Huthi health official said the strikes had killed 31 people. Iranian Guards chief Hossein Salami denounced Trump’s threats in a televised speech on Sunday, adding that “Iran will not wage war,…