World

Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela's interim president, on Thursday said the first parliamentary vote on an amnesty bill marked an important step towards "peace and national reconciliation." "A very important event has occurred for Venezuela: the unanimous adoption by all the political forces present in the Assembly, in its first reading, of the amnesty law, which is a law for peace and national reconciliation," Rodriguez, who succeeded deposed leader Nicolas Maduro, said. Venezuela's amnesty bill could lead to the release of hundreds of opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists who have been detained for political reasons.  Breaking years of repression in Venezuela In announcing the bill late last month, Rodríguez said in a pre-taped televised event: "May this law serve to he...

Former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland is under police investigation on "suspicion of aggravated corruption" over his alleged links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, police said on Thursday. "We consider there are reasonable grounds for investigation, given that he held ⁠the positions of chair of the Nobel Committee and Secretary General of the Council of ‌Europe during the period covered by the released documents," Paal Loeseth, director of Norway's ‍economic crime police unit, Oekokrim, ⁠said in a statement. "Among other things, Okokrim will investigate whether gifts, travel and loans were received in connection with his position," the statement added.  Anders Brosveet, a lawyer for Jagland, said his client welcomed the police opening an investigation and ​would ful...

The US military on Thursday said it killed two people in a strike on a boat suspected of carrying illegal drugs in the eastern Pacific. "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the US Southern Command posted on X. It added that "no US military forces were harmed" in the operation. The statement did not offer any evidence that the boat pictured was actually carrying narcotics before it was blown up in the attack.  The strike is the second since the US kidnapped the then-Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a military operation on January 3 and brought him to the United States on charges that include narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy. Deadly st...

Iranian and US officials confirmed on Wednesday that a meeting between their countries would be held in Muscat, the capital of Oman, on Friday. Earlier Wednesday, a report surfaced that negotiations between the sides were falling apart over disagreements about the format and venue, raising doubts about the talks' fate. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that the nuclear talks are now scheduled for Friday in Muscat. "I'm grateful to our Omani brothers for making all the necessary arrangements," he wrote on X. White House officials confirmed to news agencies that the meeting would take place in Oman on Friday. Earlier this week, officials said the meeting would likely happen in Turkey.  Disagreements about the agenda for the talks Despite the confirmation of the ...

The 2026 Winter Olympics sports program opened with the first curling matches scheduled in Italy's Cortina on Wednesday night, two days before the official opening ceremony. Several hundred spectators watched as eight teams unpacked their equipment in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. The matches had barely begun when a brief power outage blacked out the scoreboards for the matchups between Sweden and South Korea, Great Britain and Norway, Canada and the Czech Republic, and Estonia and Switzerland.Curling players slide granite stones toward a circular target called the 'house' in an attempt to get closer to the center, or 'button,' than their opponentsImage: Jennifer Lorenzini/REUTERS The officials paused the matches when the lights dimmed and flickered, and when the main lights and ...

The threat of a renewed global nuclear arms race came a little closer to reality as the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia expired at midnight GMT on Thursday. The New START pact and its predecessors had for decades imposed limits on the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. It lapsed at midnight GMT or 7 p.m. EST, according to the United Nations, without an agreement to extend it. The US and Russia, the world's two largest nuclear powers, will now no longer be bound by upper limits for their strategic nuclear arsenals. Russia, however, pledged to act responsibly while warning it would take "decisive" measures if its security were threatened, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Wednesday. Washington has not announced plans to adhere to t...

US Vice President JD Vance announced plans to establish a critical minerals trade bloc with allies and partners, proposing coordinated price floors as Washington escalates efforts to loosen China's grip on materials crucial to advanced manufacturing. The Trump administration intends to employ tariffs to maintain minimum prices and shore up supplies of critical minerals used to make semiconductors, electric vehicles and advanced weapons. What did JD Vance say? Vance said the US-China trade war of the past year has exposed how dependent most countries are on critical minerals, the sale of which Beijing largely dominates. Therefore, collective action is needed to make the West self-reliant, he stressed. "We want members to form a trading bloc among allies and partners, one that guarantees...

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that he'd instructed his foreign minister to "pursue fair and equitable negotiations" with the United States on some kind of nuclear accord to succeed the one President Donald Trump canceled in his first term.  Pezeshkian made no mention of the widespread unrest in Iran in recent weeks and his regime's sometimes violent crackdown, or the tensions with the US, which were further exemplified by small incidents at sea on later in the day.  The US, Arab states and Turkey have been pushing to arrange fresh talks with Iran amid the domestic protests.  Iranian Revolution: From Shah to MullahsTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What Presidents Pezeshkian and Trump said ...

The partial shutdown of government operations ended in the United States on Tuesday with President Donald Trump signing a budget package into law. Earlier on Tuesday, the House of Representatives had approved the package in a close vote of 217-214. The upper chamber of the US Congress, the Senate, had already given its approval last week. "This bill is a great victory for the American people," Trump said of the legislation, which was held up by Democratic opposition to funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for the controversial operations by federal agencies targeting migrants. The approval of the budget package secures funding for most of the government apparatus until the end of September, with the exception of the DHS. As a compromise solution, the package...

A Greek coast guard boat collided with a migrant speedboat off the island of Chios on Tuesday, leaving many people dead or injured. The Coast Guard said that the bodies of 14 people — 11 men and three women — were recovered from the sea. One of the injured women later died in hospital, bringing the death toll to at least 15. ERTNews, a Greek broadcaster, reported that 25 injured individuals, including 11 children and two coast guard officers, were taken to the island's hospital. A search-and-rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter, and divers was underway to find potentially missing individuals, as the total number of people who had been on board the speedboat was not immediately clear. What do we know about the collision? According to the media reports, a boat carrying ...