Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

The United States has imposed sanctions on three Iranian intelligence officers for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of former FBI Special Agent Robert Levinson, the U.S. Treasury and State departments said in press releases on Tuesday. The sanctions on Reza Amiri Moghadam, Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, and Taqi Daneshvar of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security are the latest linked to the disappearance of the former FBI agent, who Washington believes was abducted in Iran and died in captivity. As a result of the sanctions, any property of the men under U.S. jurisdiction must be blocked and Americans are generally barred…

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that more countries will be added to the Abraham Accords, the series of normalization that his administration negotiated between Israel and some Gulf countries during his first term. Trump, speaking to reporters at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, said more countries want to join the accords. The White House has singled out Saudi Arabia as a possible participant in the accords, although the Saudis have qualms about Israel due to the Gaza war.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Donald Trump held a brief call on Sunday to discuss progress on a new economic deal between the two countries, the prime minister’s spokesperson said. Britain is hoping to negotiate a deal with the U.S. to avoid a broader round of reciprocal tariffs that Trump says he will announce next week. “The prime minister and president discussed progress in the talks on the ‘Economic Prosperity Deal’ between the U.S. and the UK,” the spokesperson told reporters on Monday.

The online systems of Ukraine’s state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia have been targeted by a large-scale cyberattack, the railway said on Monday. Train traffic has been stable and running without delays, it said on Telegram. Work to restore the online systems has been going on for the past day. The railway said it will sell tickets offline on Monday before back-ups are recovered after what it called a “systemic, non-trivial and multi-level” attack. After the Russian invasion in 2022 and the closure of airspace over Ukraine, trains became the main mode of transportation for domestic and international passengers. The railways carried…

After 38 days in hospital battling double pneumonia almost entirely out of sight, Pope Francis made his first public appearance on Sunday since February 14 and returned to the Vatican. But with his doctors prescribing the 88-year-old pontiff another two months of rest to allow his ageing body to fully heal, it is unclear how often people will get to see the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in the coming weeks. The pope left Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Sunday and returned to the Casa Santa Marta (St. Martha’s House), a small building at the Vatican which has been…

President Donald Trump urged the Federal Reserve on Monday to lower interest rates after the U.S. central bank last week kept them unchanged. “I’d like to see the Fed lower interest rates,” Trump said during a meeting with his cabinet at the White House.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will in the very near future announce tariffs on automobiles, aluminum and pharmaceuticals. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the United States would need all those products if there were problems including wars. “We’ve been ripped off by every country,” Trump said as he presided over a meeting of his Cabinet. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking at the same meeting, said that on April 2, which Trump has targeted to impose a slew of tariffs, the United States will launch what he called “the external revenue service.” The U.S.…

Russia must stop its attacks instead of “making hollow statements about peace”, Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday. “Any diplomacy with Moscow must be backed up by firepower, sanctions and pressure,” Andrii Sybiha said on X, commenting on a Russian missile attack that wounded at least 74 in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy.

The Israeli military said its forces had fired on Monday at a building belonging to the Red Cross in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah as a result of incorrect identification, after an office belonging to the aid organisation was damaged by an explosive projectile. The International Committee of the Red Cross said no one had been injured, but that the attack had had a direct impact on its ability to operate. The Israeli military said its forces had fired at the building after identifying suspects and sensing a threat. After examination, it turned out the identification was incorrect. “The structure’s…

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela will pay a 25% tariff on any trades made with the United States. This “secondary tariff” will take effect on April 2, Trump said in a Truth Social post. Trump said he is imposing the move because, he said, Venezuela has sent “tens of thousands” of people to the United States who have a “very violent nature.” Earlier this month, Trump issued a 30-day wind-down of a license that the U.S. had granted to Chevron since 2022 to operate in Venezuela and export…