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US Imposes Sanctions on 4 Russians Linked to FSB

FILED - 21 April 2021, Berlin: Pro-Navalny demonstrators stand with a banner in front of the Russian embassy as they protest to demand the release of the imprisoned leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Photo: Paul Zinken/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 21 April 2021, Berlin: Pro-Navalny demonstrators stand with a banner in front of the Russian embassy as they protest to demand the release of the imprisoned leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Photo: Paul Zinken/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
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US Imposes Sanctions on 4 Russians Linked to FSB

FILED - 21 April 2021, Berlin: Pro-Navalny demonstrators stand with a banner in front of the Russian embassy as they protest to demand the release of the imprisoned leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Photo: Paul Zinken/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 21 April 2021, Berlin: Pro-Navalny demonstrators stand with a banner in front of the Russian embassy as they protest to demand the release of the imprisoned leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Photo: Paul Zinken/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four Russians it accused of being involved in the 2020 poisoning of now jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The US Treasury Department in a statement said the four hit with sanctions are linked to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and included two it said are among the main reported perpetrators of Navalny's poisoning.

“Today we remind Vladimir Putin and his regime that there are consequences not only for waging a brutal and unprovoked war against Ukraine, but also for violating the human rights of the Russian people,” Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in the statement.

“The assassination attempt against Aleksey Navalny in 2020 represents the Kremlin’s contempt for human rights, and we will continue to use the authorities at our disposal to hold the Kremlin’s willing would-be executioners to account.”

Thursday's sanctions were levied under a 2012 act which authorizes the US government to sanction those connected to gross violations of human rights in Russia, freezing their assets and banning them from entering the United States.

Those targeted on Thursday are FSB Criminalistics Institute operatives Alexey Alexandrovich Alexandrov, Konstantin Kudryavtsev and Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov, as well as FSB operative Vladimir Alexandrovich Panyaev.

Russia's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Navalny, Putin's fiercest domestic critic, is already serving sentences totaling 11-1/2 years on fraud and other charges that he says are bogus. His political movement has been outlawed and declared "extremist". Navalny had an extra 19 years in a maximum security penal colony added to his jail term earlier this month.

A former lawyer, Navalny rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning Putin's elite and voicing allegations of corruption on a vast scale.

Navalny, who in the 2010s brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets, was detained in 2021 after returning to Moscow from Germany where he had been treated for what Western doctors said was poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent.

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World

Ukraine's Zelenskiy: Proposal of Associate EU Membership 'Unfair'

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives to attend an informal European leaders' summit in Ayia Napa, Cyprus April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives to attend an informal European leaders' summit in Ayia Napa, Cyprus April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou/File Photo
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Ukraine's Zelenskiy: Proposal of Associate EU Membership 'Unfair'

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives to attend an informal European leaders' summit in Ayia Napa, Cyprus April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives to attend an informal European leaders' summit in Ayia Napa, Cyprus April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou/File Photo

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a letter to EU leaders that a German proposal to grant Ukraine "associate" membership of the European Union was "unfair" because it would leave Kyiv without a voice inside the bloc.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has suggested allowing Ukraine to participate in EU meetings without a vote as an interim step to full membership of the bloc, which he said could help facilitate a ⁠deal to end ⁠the four-year-old war triggered by Russia's invasion.

In response, Zelenskiy said in his letter, sent late on Friday and reviewed by Reuters, that the removal of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban - a staunch opponent of ⁠Ukraine's EU membership - following elections last month created the opportunity for substantive progress on accession talks.

"It would be unfair for Ukraine to be present in the European Union, but remain voiceless," Zelenskiy said in his message. "The time is right to move forward with Ukraine's membership in a full and meaningful way."

The letter was addressed to European Council President Antonio Costa, European ⁠Commission ⁠President Ursula von der Leyen and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, who holds the rotating chair of the EU Council.

Zelenskiy thanked European leaders for their support during the war, and said that Ukraine was acting as a bulwark against Russian aggression for the whole of the 27-nation bloc.

"We are defending Europe – fully, not partially, and not with half-measures," he said. "Ukraine deserves a fair approach and equal rights within Europe."

World

Thousands Ordered to Evacuate Around Leaking California Chemical Tank

Garden Grove police direct evacuees towards a shelter after a chemical leak from a large storage tank threatened residents in Garden Grove, California on May 22, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)
Garden Grove police direct evacuees towards a shelter after a chemical leak from a large storage tank threatened residents in Garden Grove, California on May 22, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)
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Thousands Ordered to Evacuate Around Leaking California Chemical Tank

Garden Grove police direct evacuees towards a shelter after a chemical leak from a large storage tank threatened residents in Garden Grove, California on May 22, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)
Garden Grove police direct evacuees towards a shelter after a chemical leak from a large storage tank threatened residents in Garden Grove, California on May 22, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)

Tens of thousands of people were ordered to leave their homes in California on Friday after a huge chemical tank began to leak, sending toxic fumes over a heavily populated area and posing the risk of an explosion.

The tank contained 7,000 gallons (26,000 liters) of methyl methacrylate, a volatile and flammable liquid used to make plastics, with firefighters warning the situation was serious.

"There are literally two options left," Incident Commander Craig Covey said.

"The tank fails and spills a total of about 6-7,000 gallons of very bad chemicals into the parking lot in that area or, two, the tank goes into a thermal runaway and blows up, affecting the tanks around them that have fuel or chemicals in them as well.

"We are setting up these evacuations in preparation for these two options: it fails, or it blows up," AFP quoted him as saying.

The incident unfolded in the Garden Grove area of Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles.

Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra said about 40,000 people were affected by the evacuation order, with several thousand refusing to leave their homes.

Aerial footage filmed by local TV stations showed jets of water being sprayed at the tank, which has a capacity of 34,000 gallons.

Covey said later Friday that efforts to cool the tank had been successful.

"It's down to a temperature around 61 degrees, with 50 being its happy place so those efforts are succeeding," Covey said in a video update.

"Our group is going to do everything they can to come up with a third, a fourth, a fifth option," he added.

Orange County health officer Regina Chinsio Kwong said the large exclusion zone around the tank was a necessary precaution.

"If it does explode and there is a vapor, you are all safe as long as you are out of the zone that was determined to be an evacuation zone," she said.

She appealed for anyone who might notice "a fruity and heavy smell" to alert authorities.

"Smelling it doesn't mean you've reached a level that causes symptoms. But we don't want you to smell that. So we need to know if you're smelling it."

No injuries had been reported by Friday evening, and there was no immediate indication as to what caused the leak, which was initially reported on Thursday.

Covey said crews were preparing for a chemical spill, which he described as a "best-case scenario" and far preferable to an explosion and toxic plume.

Responders were working to put containment barriers in place to prevent any spilled material from reaching storm drains or river channels that funnel into the ocean.

The US Environmental Protection Agency says methyl methacrylate is irritating to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes in humans.

"Respiratory effects have been reported in humans following acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) inhalation exposures," a fact sheet on the agency's website says.

"Neurological symptoms have also been reported in humans following acute exposure."

World

Iran Weighs Peace Proposal, Accuses US of 'Excessive Demands'

FILE PHOTO: People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Iran Weighs Peace Proposal, Accuses US of 'Excessive Demands'

FILE PHOTO: People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Tehran accused the United States of "excessive demands,” Iranian media said on Saturday, as US media reports raised the prospect that Washington was mulling new strikes and Iranian leaders considered the latest peace proposal.

Pakistan's powerful army chief arrived in Tehran on Friday to bolster mediation and US President Donald Trump abruptly changed his plans to skip his son's wedding to stay in Washington due to "circumstances pertaining to government,” fueling speculation that the situation had entered a sensitive stage.

Trump has described the stop-start negotiations this week as teetering on the "borderline" between renewed attacks and a deal to end the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and led to competing blockades around the strategic Strait of Hormuz that have roiled the global economy.

Weeks of negotiations since an April 8 ceasefire -- including historic face-to-face talks hosted by Islamabad -- have still not produced a permanent resolution or restored full access to the strait, choking vast quantities of global oil supply.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran was engaged in the diplomatic process despite "repeated betrayals of diplomacy and military aggression against Iran, along with contradictory positions and repeated excessive demands" by the United States, according to the ministry.

US media outlets Axios and CBS News, citing unnamed sources, reported the White House was considering strikes on Iran, although both added a final decision had not been made yet.

US officials have repeatedly raised the prospect of renewed action against Iran if a deal were not reached, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying on the sidelines of a NATO conference in Sweden that there had been "some progress" towards a peaceful resolution but "things were not there yet.”

"We're dealing with a very difficult group of people. And if it doesn't change, then the president's been clear he has other options," he said.

Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir landed in Tehran on Friday where he met with Araghchi late into the night to discuss "the latest diplomatic efforts and initiatives aimed at preventing further escalation,” according to the official IRNA news agency.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei cautioned that the visit did not mean "we have reached a turning point or a decisive situation" with "deep and extensive" disagreements remaining, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.

AFP quoted Baqaei as saying that a delegation from Qatar had also held talks with the Iranian foreign minister on Friday.

"In recent days, many countries -- both regional and non-regional -- have been trying to help bring the war to an end ... However, Pakistan remains the official mediator," he said.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar -- who have played a crucial role in mediation between the warring sides -- flew to China, Iran's top trading partner, for a four-day visit in which efforts to resolve the Middle East crisis were expected to be discussed.

Baqaei said the status of the Strait of Hormuz and a retaliatory US blockade of Iranian ports were also under discussion.

The future of the strategic maritime chokepoint remains a key sticking point, with fears growing that the global economy will suffer as pre-war oil stockpiles run down.