François Picard is pleased to welcome Hannah Neumann, German MEP, Greens/EFA and Chair of the EU Parliament's Delegation for Iran. She offers analysis on the growing geopolitical instability surrounding Iran, energy security, and the EU’s strategic position in an increasingly fragmented global orde»»»

The European Union has unveiled plans to shield households and businesses from the energy crisis triggered by the war with Iran. The bloc says it has spent an additional €24 billion on energy imports because of higher prices since the war began, and it urged more investment in r»»»

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, April 23: Le Parisien reports on an "unprecedented" criminal complaint filed against food delivery giants UberEats and Deliveroo for human trafficking in France. Le Monde looks at the important role of priests in the war in Ukraine and we also look at a suggestion to r»»»

A French soldier who was gravely wounded in an attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon last week has succumbed to his wounds, President Emmanuel Macron has said. Another French peacekeeper was killed in the incident and two more were injured; their patrol came under small-arms fire in the village of G»»»

PARIS: Italy has played down suggestions that its national team could replace Iran at the World Cup, following reports that an envoy to US President Donald Trump had asked FIFA to consider the move. US special envoy Paolo Zampolli told the Financial Times it would be a “dream” to see four-time Worl»»»

JERUSALEM: Defense minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel was “prepared to resume the war against Iran,” adding that his country was awaiting a green light from the United States to return Iran to “the Stone Age.” “The IDF is ready both defensively and offensively, and the targets have b»»»

OSLO: The Iran war is having a devastating humanitarian impact globally with ​higher energy prices making everything from filling the tank of an aid lorry to paying employees and buying food for displaced people costlier, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Thursday.The NRC is one of »»»

Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel was "prepared to resume the war against Iran", adding that his country was awaiting a green light from the United States to return Iran to "the Stone Age". "The IDF is ready both defensively and offensively, and the targets have been marked,»»»

Brussels, Apr.23 ( SANA) The eurozone’s private sector slipped back into contraction in April, marking its weakest performance in nearly a year and a half since November 2024, as the war in Iran hit services and fuelled inflation. The war in the Middle East, involving Iran, has now done what no tra»»»

Tonight's second round of preparatory direct talks between Lebanon and Israel will be held at the White House instead of the State Department, Lebanese TV networks said. The meeting is scheduled for 11:00 pm Beirut time (8:00 pm GMT). MTV and Al-Arabiya later reported that U.S. President Donald Tru»»»

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the latest attack despite a 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war. In a statement, the ministry said that "an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district," more than 30 k»»»

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the latest attack despite a 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war. In a statement, the ministry said that “an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district,” more t»»»

Dubai: Iran’s decision-making core has undergone a quiet but profound transformation, with real power shifting away from clerics to a hardened network of military commanders, according to a detailed report by The New York Times. At the centre of this shift is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamen»»»

Iran has the justification for its Hormuz tolls, as it can cite “severe constraint” from US sanctions and war, Professor Azmi Hassan, senior fellow at the Nusantara Academy of Strategic Research in Malaysia, tells Sputnik. It also has unique leverage in that it effectively controls the waterway, he»»»

WASHINGTON: Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously wounded in the US-Israeli airstrike that killed his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei but is mentally sharp, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Citing several Iranian officials which it did not name, the Times said Mojtaba»»»

The US is not setting any deadlines for concluding the war against Iran, President Donald Trump has said. The remarks contrast with Trump’s earlier claim, made shortly after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, that the fighting would last “four to five weeks.” He also repeate»»»

GENEVA: An Iranian government spokesperson says the men’s national team are preparing for “proud and successful participation” in their World Cup games in the United States. Iran’s ability and willingness to go to the World Cup across north America starting June 11 has been unclear since the US and»»»

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved the merger with Paramount Skydance Thursday morning. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo April 23 (UPI) -- Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted to give their preliminary blessing to the long-debated merger with Paramount Skydance Wednesday »»»

RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan discussed efforts being made to achieve a complete cessation of Israeli attacks on Lebanon with the speaker of its parliament Nabih Berri on Thursday. In a phone call with Berri, Prince Faisal also discussed developments in Lebanon and reitera»»»

Italian officials have rebuked a US proposal for their national football team to replace Iran at the upcoming FIFA World Cup. Italy lost the chance to participate at the World Cup for a third successive time after a humiliating penalty shootout defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a playoff last mon»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia will continue seeking recognition of Nazi crimes against Soviet people as genocide, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday. "Our diplomacy will consistently strive to ensure that the crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators against Soviet citizens of al»»»

The abrupt departure of US Navy Secretary John Phelan has come at a particularly sensitive moment — with American naval forces deeply engaged in operations linked to the Iran conflict and a fragile ceasefire still holding. The Pentagon announced that Phelan was leaving “effective immediately,” offe»»»

Lebanon's leaders accused Israel on Thursday of committing a war crime, after an airstrike killed a Lebanese journalist in the country's south, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the incident. Rescuers and the reporter's employer on Wednesday confirmed the death of Amal Khalil, a 42-year»»»

ANKARA: Turkiye is making efforts to revive negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and bring together the leaders of the warring sides, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in a meeting in Ankara, the Turkish presidency said on Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, Ky»»»

Dubai: Dubai's flagship Emirates is confident it will rebound quickly from disruptions caused by the Iran conflict, with President Tim Clark saying strong demand will help the airline recover lost ground and fend off competition. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.Speakin»»»

The United Nations said Thursday it was "working on" maintaining a presence in Lebanon once the mandate for its UNIFIL peacekeeping force expires at the end of the year. "In terms of the post-UNIFIL, we're currently in the process of working on these options," said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the U.N. Und»»»

Germany’s Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz congratulated Rumen Radev in a phone call on Thursday on the overwhelming victory of Progressive Bulgaria in the parliamentary elections and expressed the German government’s readiness to work with Bulgaria’s future regular government, the press office of»»»

BERLIN: The son of the ‌former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomei»»»

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea: Pope Leo XIV wrapped up his African odyssey on Thursday with a final Mass in Equatorial Guinea, bringing to an end one of the newsiest papal trips in the history of popes on the road, thanks to his extraordinary back-and-forth with President Donald Trump. A powerful rains»»»

BEIRUT: Lebanon will formally urge Israel to immediately halt attacks on journalists and paramedics during US-sponsored talks in Washington, a day after an Israeli strike killed a Lebanese reporter and wounded another in southern Lebanon. An official source told Arab News that the demand was added »»»

The Pentagon blasted as cherry picking and false on Thursday a news report saying that the department assessed it could take six months to completely clear the Strait of Hormuz of Iranian-laid mines. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Pentagon shared the six-month estimate during a »»»

Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held talks on Thursday, discussing the latest developments in Lebanon and the region, "particularly Israel's continued aggression against Lebanon, including its ongoing systematic destruction of border villages," »»»

Britain and France Thursday voiced hope that a military plan to protect the Strait of Hormuz was coming together and would succeed in restoring trade flows through the vital passage. At a two-day meeting in London, a dedicated operational planning group on Wednesday presented a decision brief to mi»»»

Lebanon has accused Israel of war crimes after a reporter for a Lebanese newspaper was killed on Wednesday in a strike on a house in the southern village of al-Tiri, where she had taken cover after an earlier attack targeted the vehicle she was traveling in. Amal Khalil, a reporter for Al-Akhbar, w»»»

The UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, are among the most exposed to undersea cable failures. Possible damage would result in a 70 to 90% loss of connectivity for Arab Gulf States, and up to 35% for Saudi Arabia alone, risking slowdowns in e-commerce, banking, and global servi»»»

Britain's Prince Harry made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday and called on Russia's President Vladimir Putin to end the war - a week after a massive Russian aerial attack on the country - and on US President Donald Trump to show leadership to help resolve the conflict. By convention, the Br»»»

US President Donald Trump has ordered the US military to “shoot and kill” Iranian small boats choking the Strait of Hormuz.In a social media post Thursday morning, he said the military is intensifying its mine clearing efforts in the critical waterway. The move intensified the US-Iran standoff in t»»»

1 of 2 | The Pentagon posted a video on social media Thursday showing what it says is U.S. forces boarding a vessel on the Indian Ocean with ties to Iran. File Photo via U.S. European Command/UPI | License Photo April 23 (UPI) -- The Pentagon posted a video on social media Thursday showing what it »»»

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said Lebanon “has started to gradually reclaim its natural right to determine its own fate independently of others’ calculations,” stressing that the Lebanese state “alone holds the decision to negotiate,” and that Lebanon “is not subordinate to anyone and is»»»

For the first time in decades, Israeli and Lebanese civilian officials sat across a table in Washington and began talking. The discussions—convened in the shadow of a wider war with Iran, mediated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and given a 10-day ceasefire window by Donald Trump—are truly histo»»»

Since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria on 8 December 2024, the country’s border with Lebanon has been subject to an unprecedented mobilisation, with Damascus ramping things up in recent weeks by sending heavy reinforcements to the frontier to confront Hezbollah’s smuggling operations. Under As»»»

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said Lebanon “has started to gradually reclaim its natural right to determine its own fate independently of others’ calculations,” stressing that the Lebanese state “alone holds the decision to negotiate,” and that Lebanon “is not subordinate to anyone and is»»»

Today (23 April), the US hosts the second round of talks between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington. The first meeting of these diplomats on 14 April was significant, not because it was the first direct legal contact between senior officials of these states since 1993, or because th»»»

BEIRUT: Spread across a hillside of southern Lebanon, the tiny village of Beit Lif had been almost entirely flattened. Once home to a few thousand people, nearly every house had been reduced to piles of concrete by Israeli military demolitions. “They were demolishing it gradually until they reached»»»

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin can only meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the purpose of finalizing agreements on the conflict, Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Wednesday. Peskov’s comments on state television, reported by Russian new»»»

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is ordering the United States Navy to triple mine clearing activity in the Strait of Hormuz. The US president said that he ordered the Navy to shoot any Iranian boat allegedly putting mines in the strait. "Additionally, our mine '»»»

Amsterdam: A picture of an Ecuadoran family separated when US immigration agents arrested the father following a court hearing won the 2025 World Press Photo of the Year Award on Thursday. The photo, taken by Carol Guzy of the ZUMA Press agency and iWitness for the Miami Herald, shows the moment Im»»»

The U.S. military on Thursday seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up a standoff with Iran a day after its paramilitary Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the crucial Strait of Hormuz. The Defense Department released video footage of U.S. f»»»

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president and prime minister accused Israel on Thursday of a war crime, after an airstrike killed a Lebanese journalist in the country’s south, where Israeli forces occupy several areas. Rescuers and the reporter’s employer on Wednesday confirmed the death of Amal Khalil, a 42-yea»»»