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UK 'Intensifies' Talks on Freeing Zaghari From Iran

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, “has begun counting down the weeks” before she is able to fly home. (File: Reuters)
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, “has begun counting down the weeks” before she is able to fly home. (File: Reuters)
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UK 'Intensifies' Talks on Freeing Zaghari From Iran

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, “has begun counting down the weeks” before she is able to fly home. (File: Reuters)
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, “has begun counting down the weeks” before she is able to fly home. (File: Reuters)

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that the UK has “intensified” negotiations with Iran to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual citizen, from “arbitrary detention”, adding that they were “pushing very hard” to free her.

She has been arrested since 2016. She was handed a five-year imprisonment sentence for charges of sedition.

After the outbreak of the pandemic, the former employee at Thomson Reuters Foundation was placed under the electronic wristband system.

Britain is "pushing as hard as we can to get the immediate release, not in seven weeks, but as soon as possible, of Nazanin and all of our other dual nationals", Raab told Sky News.

He said Britain is “pushing as hard as it can” to free her, and negotiations with Iran had “intensified” recently.

The British foreign secretary added that the incoming Biden administration in the US offers “additional possibilities” for Zaghari-Ratcliffe to leave Iran.

AFP reported Nazanin’s husband as he welcomed the negotiations between Raab and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. He noted that Zaghari has created a seven-week countdown calendar on the wall of her bedroom. On the last week of the calendar, she has written “freedom.”

Zaghari was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 after visiting her family. She was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

In spring, she was put under house arrest at her parents’ house in Tehran.

A second legal procedure was taken against her for spreading propaganda against the regime, but the trial was postponed at the beginning of November.

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World

At Least Two Dead as Floods Hit Eastern Spain

Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)
Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)
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At Least Two Dead as Floods Hit Eastern Spain

Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)
Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)

At least two people have died after heavy rain triggered flooding in eastern Spain, authorities said Monday, as rescuers worked to evacuate stranded residents and officials urged people in the Valencia region to stay indoors.

Videos released by Valencia's regional meteorological agency showed streets turned into torrents, sweeping away vehicles in several towns in the provinces of Valencia and Alicante.

"Road travel is impossible, you must stay at home," Juan Carlos Valderrama, the Valencia region's emergency chief, said on Monday morning, warning that intense and persistent rainfall was causing severe flooding.

One person died in Sagunto, local authorities said overnight from Sunday to Monday, while firefighters in neighboring Catalonia reported the death of a woman who fell into a stream.

Emergency services and soldiers from Spain's military emergency response unit were working early on Monday to evacuate people whose homes had flooded, including residents who had taken refuge on rooftops.

"Rescue operations are continuing in areas that are difficult to access. People are urged to avoid all travel," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X, describing the situation in the Valencia region as "very difficult".

Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the Mediterranean storms that typically hit eastern Spain in autumn as the sea absorbs heat during the summer, leading to increased evaporation and heavier rainfall.

National weather agency AEMET announced Friday that last month was mainland Spain's hottest September on record, after the country registered its warmest summer between June and August.

World

Nations Seek Reset at UN Talks as Nature Goals off Track

Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP
Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP
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Nations Seek Reset at UN Talks as Nature Goals off Track

Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP
Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP

Nearly 200 nations are gathering in Armenia on Monday for critical negotiations as governments come under pressure to salvage a landmark nature pact whose goals are slipping out of reach.

Most countries joined a historic call four years ago to halt and reverse the destruction of nature by 2030 but governments have been slow to act on these pledges, said AFP.

Many goals of the so-called "Paris Agreement for Nature" are falling behind, including a centerpiece commitment to protect 30 percent of Earth's land and oceans.

Some of the toughest objectives of the pact, such as cutting subsidies for fossil fuels and other powerful industries, have made little progress.

"We must honestly admit that collectively, we are not yet on track as needed," Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Friday ahead of the formal UN negotiations known as COP17.

The summit comes at a difficult time, with public finances under strain and political attention fixed on conflicts, geopolitical tensions and a global energy crisis.

Only a handful of world leaders, including UN chief Antonio Guterres but mostly heads of state from nearby Central Asian nations, turned up for a high-level session ahead of the formal negotiations.

But the stakes could not be higher, Guterres said at the event on Friday, describing an unrelenting "war on nature" that threatened the very livability of the planet for future generations.

"We need more action, more speed and more will," he said.

"Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability. It is time to ask ourselves -- are we doing enough?"

- Falling short -

A United Nations scorecard issued ahead of COP17 reported that progress toward the 23 biodiversity targets was being made -- but unevenly, and not at pace to meet the 2030 deadline.

A major tension at the summit will be money, with the report finding that the effort to close a yawning gap in necessary finance "falls far short" of what is needed.

European and other wealthy nations obligated to provide biodiversity finance have been pushing for large emerging economies like China to also contribute.

But attention is likely to focus more on how private capital, not public finances, might help plug the shortfall.

A key priority will be encouraging corporations to donate a share of profits to a near-empty UN fund to support conservation in developing countries.

Guterres also fixed the spotlight on state incentives for extractive industries, scolding governments for "spending money on the wrong things" despite pledging to reform harmful subsidies.

"Subsidizing fossil fuels is subsidizing suicide," said Guterres of the coal, oil and gas that are "boiling our planet and are the scourge of biodiversity".

For the mountainous Caucasus nation of Armenia, the summit is one of the largest international events it has ever hosted, with thousands of visitors expected over the next two weeks.

The hosts have stressed that action -- not new pledges -- would define success at COP17.

"The world does not need a new vision. We have one. What it needs is delivery," Adil Najam, global president of WWF International, said Friday.

World

Russian FM to Visit Iran as Moscow Looks to Mediate in War

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a joint press conference with Bahrain's foreign minister and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) secretary-general after the 9th Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue between GCC and the Russian Federation in Manama on October 18, 2026. (AFP)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a joint press conference with Bahrain's foreign minister and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) secretary-general after the 9th Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue between GCC and the Russian Federation in Manama on October 18, 2026. (AFP)
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Russian FM to Visit Iran as Moscow Looks to Mediate in War

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a joint press conference with Bahrain's foreign minister and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) secretary-general after the 9th Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue between GCC and the Russian Federation in Manama on October 18, 2026. (AFP)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a joint press conference with Bahrain's foreign minister and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) secretary-general after the 9th Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue between GCC and the Russian Federation in Manama on October 18, 2026. (AFP)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to arrive in Iran on Monday in his first visit since the outbreak of the Middle East war, as Russia seeks to play a mediating role.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei confirmed the trip on Sunday, saying in a statement that the two sides will discuss "regional and international developments".

Lavrov, who is scheduled to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said Moscow's efforts are "aimed at preventing the return of a large-scale war", with talks stalled between Tehran and Washington.

The visit comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in early October that Moscow was prepared to contribute to mediation efforts.

Russia and Iran, two of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world, maintain close ties. Their military and economic cooperation has only increased since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Middle East war began in February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Despite a ceasefire in April, followed by a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June, hostilities in and around the Strait of Hormuz have not stopped.

Iran claims control over the strategic waterway -- through which one-fifth of the world's hydrocarbons pass in normal times -- and regularly targets vessels that cross without its authorization.

In response, Washington has been maintaining a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

Russia's foreign ministry said discussions during Lavrov's visit were expected to focus on "ways to resolve the acute international crisis triggered by the unlawful aggression of the US and Israel against Iran".

The ministry said the war had been a blow to stability and security "not only in the near and Middle East, but also on a global scale".