Author: staff
Peace talks in Islamabad led by Vice President JD Vance fell apart over the weekend. Vance told reporters that the Iranians would not pledge to no longer pursue the development of a nuclear weapon.“They have chosen not to accept our terms,” he said. “The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.”Further talks between American and Iranian negotiators have not been publicly disclosed. But Trump told a New York Post reporter on…
There are many reasons Pakistan managed to snag the spot as mediator: It has close ties with Iran and China — which helped it be seen as a neutral party. And Gulf countries that might have stepped in to mediate were themselves under attack.But Pakistan’s courtship of President Donald Trump since he took office a little over a year ago has also played an important role. It’s been a wide-ranging campaign, and one that has shown a canny understanding of Trump’s ego.“Pakistan wouldn’t be convening these talks if it didn’t have that strong relationship with Washington and that personal trust…
Published on 15/04/2026 – 21:31 GMT+2 The United States is discussing holding a second round of peace talks with Iran in Pakistan and is optimistic about reaching a deal, the White House said on Wednesday. “Those discussions are being had” and “we feel good about the prospects of a deal,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, adding that further talks “would very likely” be in Islamabad. Her comments come after President Donald Trump raised hopes on Tuesday that the war in Iran was nearing an end, saying it is “very close to over.” “I view it (the war) very close…
Magyar’s landslide victory has given Tisza a supermajority in parliament, with which it can pass sweeping reforms aimed at restoring judicial independence, academic freedom and media pluralism, reversing years of democratic backsliding. The prime minister-elect’s ultimate goal is to unlock more than €30 billion in EU funds that Brussels froze due to rule-of-law concerns. He is under particular pressure to release around €10 billion in Covid-19 recovery funds that expire at the end of August this year. The Budapest meeting follows a phone call between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Magyar on Tuesday, where the two discussed “immediate…
A 14-year-old armed with five guns opened fire at a Turkish school on Wednesday, killing nine people, wounding 13 and sparking scenes of mayhem as students jumped out of windows to escape. The attack in the southern province of Kahramanmaras province was Turkey’s second such incident in as many days, shocking a country where school shootings are a rare occurrence. Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci confirmed nine deaths, with 13 wounded — six in intensive care, three of them in a critical condition. State-run broadcaster, TRT, identified the latest shooter as Isa Aras Mersinli and said his father was detained for…
“You only need to look at Hungary, look at what’s happened to Orbán, to Fidesz. I think that if you’re unable to deliver growth, whatever your ideology is, it will lose,” she added. Badenoch’s Conservative Party slumped to its worst-ever result in the 2024 U.K. general election after 14 years in power, and is struggling to regain ground as Nigel Farage’s populist right-wing Reform UK surges in the polls. Vincenzo Alex But Badenoch said the rise of Magyar, who she described as “very much of the right, in some places even tougher,” shows traditional center-right economics and ideology is “reasserting…
Published on 15/04/2026 – 20:25 GMT+2 Sweden thwarted a pro-Russian cyberattack on a thermal power plant in mid-2025, the government said on Wednesday, saying the group behind it was linked to Russian intelligence. There were no serious consequences, Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said. “The Swedish Security Service handled the case and was able to identify the actor behind it, which has ties to Russian intelligence and security services,” Bohlin told reporters. Bohlin told the AFP news agency that the attack failed “because the security systems in place worked.” Without going into detail, he said the aim of the operation…
In a separate appearance on Kossuth state radio, he declared “every Hungarian deserves a public service media that broadcasts the truth.” As a result of the government’s dominant role in the media, many Hungarians — especially those in the country’s rural areas — only heard or saw coverage curated by the ruling Fidesz party. Magyar himself avoided speaking to state-controlled outlets ahead of the Hungarian election, which he won on Sunday. “After a year and a half, I am back in the ‘public’ television studio,” Magyar wrote in a post on X. “We have just witnessed the last days of…
Updated: 15/04/2026 – 18:00 GMT+2 Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond this April 15th, 2026 – latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel. … More
BRUSSELS ― Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will not attend the informal meeting of the European Council in Cyprus next week, an EU official told POLITICO. Orbán suffered a crushing loss in Sunday’s general election that put an end to his 16-year premiership. He was scheduled to attend the two-day gathering on April 23 -24, during which national leaders are set to discuss the crisis in the Middle East and the bloc’s next seven-year budget. The nationalist-populist leader remains Hungary’s caretaker prime minister until his rival, Péter Magyar, takes power in May.