عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Trump Weighing Tough Response to Iran, Araghchi Says Country ‘Not Seeking War’

A demonstrator holds a burning photo of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during a protest in support of the Iranian people outside Downing Street, as protests have spread across Iran since the end of December in response to soaring inflation and protesters demanding an end to clerical rule, in London, Britain, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Chris J Ratcliffe
A demonstrator holds a burning photo of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during a protest in support of the Iranian people outside Downing Street, as protests have spread across Iran since the end of December in response to soaring inflation and protesters demanding an end to clerical rule, in London, Britain, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Chris J Ratcliffe
TT
TT

Trump Weighing Tough Response to Iran, Araghchi Says Country ‘Not Seeking War’

A demonstrator holds a burning photo of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during a protest in support of the Iranian people outside Downing Street, as protests have spread across Iran since the end of December in response to soaring inflation and protesters demanding an end to clerical rule, in London, Britain, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Chris J Ratcliffe
A demonstrator holds a burning photo of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during a protest in support of the Iranian people outside Downing Street, as protests have spread across Iran since the end of December in response to soaring inflation and protesters demanding an end to clerical rule, in London, Britain, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Chris J Ratcliffe

President Donald Trump said the US may meet Iranian officials and was in contact with the opposition, as he weighed a range of strong responses including military options to escalating unrest posing one of the biggest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Iranian Revolution 

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister said his country is fully prepared for conflict but also ready for negotiations, as Trump said the Iranian leadership was seeking talks.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking war but is fully prepared for war," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a conference of foreign ambassadors in Tehran broadcast by state TV on Monday. "We are also ready for negotiations but these negotiations should be fair, with equal rights and based on mutual respect." 

Trump said Iran called to negotiate its nuclear program, which Israel and the US bombed in a 12-day war in June. Trump has warned Iran's leaders that the United States would attack if security forces open fire on protesters. 

US-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested. 

Iran has not given an official toll and Reuters was unable to independently verify the tallies. 

Trump was to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a US official told Reuters on Sunday. The Wall Street Journal had reported ‌that options included ‌military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government ‌sources. 

"The ⁠military is looking ‌at it, and we're looking at some very strong options," Trump told reporters travelling on Air Force One on Sunday night. 

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Washington against "a miscalculation." 

"Let us be clear: in the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target," said Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. 

DOZENS OF BODY BAGS The protests began on December 28 in response to soaring prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

Iranian authorities accused the US and Israel of fomenting trouble and called for a ⁠nationwide rally on Monday to condemn "terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel," state media reported. The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by ‌an internet blackout since Thursday. Trump said on Sunday he would talk to ‍Elon Musk about restoring internet access in Iran through his ‍Starlink satellite service. 

Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran showed large crowds marching at night, clapping ‍and chanting. The crowd "has no end nor beginning," a man is heard saying. 

State TV showed dozens of body bags on the ground at the Tehran coroner's office, saying the dead were victims of events caused by "armed terrorists", as well as footage of loved ones gathered outside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in Tehran waiting to identify bodies. 

Reuters verified the locations. 

Authorities on Sunday declared three days of national mourning "in honor of martyrs killed in resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime," according to state media. 

Three Israeli sources, who were present for Israeli security consultations over the weekend, said Israel was ⁠on a high-alert footing for the possibility of any US intervention. Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June 2025, which the United States briefly joined by attacking nuclear installations. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel and an American air base in Qatar. 

'RIOTERS AND TERRORISTS' While Iranian authorities have weathered previous protests, the latest have unfolded with Tehran still recovering from last year's war and with its regional position weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon's Hezbollah since the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel. Iran's unrest comes as Trump flexes US muscles internationally, having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and discussing acquiring Greenland by purchase or force. 

Alan Eyre, a former US diplomat and Iran expert, thought it unlikely the protests would topple the establishment. 

"I think it more likely that it puts these protests down eventually, but emerges from the process far weaker," he told Reuters, noting that Iran's elite still appeared cohesive and there was no organized opposition. 

Trump, posting on social media on Saturday, said: "Iran is looking at FREEDOM, ‌perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!" 

 

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Landmark Myanmar Rohingya Genocide Case Opens at UN’s Top Court

A view of the courtroom as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) starts two weeks of hearings in a landmark case brought by Gambia, which accuses Myanmar of committing genocide ​the Rohingya, a minority Muslim group, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 12, 2026. (Reuters)
A view of the courtroom as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) starts two weeks of hearings in a landmark case brought by Gambia, which accuses Myanmar of committing genocide ​the Rohingya, a minority Muslim group, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 12, 2026. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Landmark Myanmar Rohingya Genocide Case Opens at UN’s Top Court

A view of the courtroom as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) starts two weeks of hearings in a landmark case brought by Gambia, which accuses Myanmar of committing genocide ​the Rohingya, a minority Muslim group, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 12, 2026. (Reuters)
A view of the courtroom as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) starts two weeks of hearings in a landmark case brought by Gambia, which accuses Myanmar of committing genocide ​the Rohingya, a minority Muslim group, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 12, 2026. (Reuters)

A landmark case ​accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against minority Muslim Rohingya opened at the United Nations' top court on Monday.

It is the first genocide case the International Court of Justice will hear in full in more than a decade. The outcome will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, likely affecting South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ against Israel over the war in Gaza.

Myanmar has denied accusations of genocide.

"The case is likely to set critical precedents for how genocide is defined ‌and how it ‌can be proven, and how violations can be ‌remedied," ⁠Nicholas ​Koumjian, head ‌of the UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, told Reuters.

The predominantly Muslim West African country of Gambia filed the case at the ICJ - also known as the World Court - in 2019, accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority in the remote western Rakhine state.

Myanmar's armed forces launched an offensive in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes and into neighboring Bangladesh, where they ⁠recounted killings, mass rape and arson.

A UN fact-finding mission concluded the 2017 military offensive had included "genocidal acts".

ROHINGYA VICTIMS ‌SAY THEY WANT JUSTICE

Speaking in The Hague before ‍the hearings, Rohingya victims said they ‍want the long-awaited court case to deliver justice.

"We are hoping for a ‍positive result that will tell the world that Myanmar committed genocide, and we are the victims of that and we deserve justice," Yousuf Ali, a 52-year-old Rohingya refugee who says he was tortured by the Myanmar military, told Reuters.

Myanmar authorities rejected that report, saying ​its military offensive was a legitimate counter-terrorism campaign in response to attacks by Muslim militants. In the 2019 preliminary hearings in the ICJ ⁠case, Myanmar's then leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, rejected Gambia's accusations of genocide as "incomplete and misleading".

The hearings at the ICJ will mark the first time that Rohingya victims of the alleged atrocities will be heard by an international court, although those sessions will be closed to the public and the media for sensitivity and privacy reasons.

In total, the hearings at the ICJ will span three weeks. The ICJ is the U.N.'s highest court and deals with disputes between states.

Myanmar has been in further turmoil since 2021, when the military toppled the elected civilian government and violently suppressed pro-democracy protests, sparking a nationwide armed rebellion.

The country is currently holding phased elections ‌that have been criticized by the United Nations, some Western countries and human rights groups as not free or fair.

World

Trump Says Working Well with Venezuela’s New Leaders, Open to Meeting

A motorcyclist rides past graffiti depicting former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is facing trial in the United States after US forces captured him, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP)
A motorcyclist rides past graffiti depicting former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is facing trial in the United States after US forces captured him, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP)
TT
TT

Trump Says Working Well with Venezuela’s New Leaders, Open to Meeting

A motorcyclist rides past graffiti depicting former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is facing trial in the United States after US forces captured him, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP)
A motorcyclist rides past graffiti depicting former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is facing trial in the United States after US forces captured him, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP)

US President Donald Trump said Sunday his administration was working well with Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez -- and that he would be open to meeting with her.

Trump's upbeat remarks came just over a week after Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was seized in a US special forces raid and brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Trump has said that the United States now has de facto control of Venezuela, as it enforces a naval blockade of the South American nation's vital oil exports.

Rodriguez, despite being a close Maduro ally, has indicated a willingness to work with the United States, saying she is open to cooperate on Trump's demands for access to Venezuelan oil.

Her government has also vowed to release political prisoners and begin talks on reestablishing diplomatic ties with Washington.

US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening Washington's embassy there.

"Venezuela is really working out well. We're working along really well with the leadership," Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One.

Asked if he planned to meet with Rodriguez, Trump said: "At some point I'll be."

He also said he expected to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Many were stunned when Trump dismissed the possibility of Machado serving as Venezuela's interim leader following the toppling of Maduro, and instead accepted Rodriguez's ascent.

Machado was given the Nobel Peace Prize last year and dedicated it to Trump, though he has made no secret of his frustration at being passed over for the award.

- Political prisoners -

The Venezuelan government began to release prisoners jailed under Maduro on Thursday, saying a "large" number would be released -- but rights groups and the opposition say only about 20 have walked free so far, including several prominent opposition figures.

Relatives have gathered outside prisons believed to be holding political detainees, to await their loved ones' release, sometimes even camping outside.

Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners currently being held in Venezuela.

"Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!" Trump said in a post late Saturday on his Truth Social platform.

"I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done."

Meanwhile, a detained police officer accused of "treason" against Venezuela died in state custody after a stroke and heart attack, the state prosecution service confirmed Sunday.

Opposition groups said the 52-year-old man, Edison Jose Torres Fernandez, had shared messages critical of Maduro's government.

"We directly hold the regime of Delcy Rodriguez responsible for this death," Justice First, part of the Venezuelan opposition alliance, said on X.

Late Saturday, families held candlelight vigils outside El Rodeo prison east of Caracas and El Helicoide, a notorious jail run by the intelligence services, holding signs with the names of their imprisoned relatives.

Prisoners include Freddy Superlano, a close ally of Machado who was jailed after challenging Maduro's widely contested reelection in 2024.

"He is alive -- that was what I was most afraid about," Superlano's wife Aurora Silva told reporters.

"He is standing strong and I am sure he is going to come out soon."

Maduro's supporters rallied in Caracas on Saturday but the demonstrations were far smaller than his camp had mustered in the past, and top figures from his government were notably absent.

- Oil -

Trump pressed top oil executives at a White House meeting on Friday to invest in Venezuela, but was met with a cautious reception.

ExxonMobil's chief executive Darren Woods notably dismissed the country as "uninvestable" without sweeping reforms -- earning a rebuke from Trump.

"I didn't like Exxon's response. You know, we have so many that want it, I'd probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn't like their response. They're playing too cute," Trump said Sunday.

Experts say Venezuela's oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions.

World

Fed Chair Powell Says Targeted by Federal Probe

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), at the US Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, US, December 10, 2025. (Reuters)
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), at the US Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, US, December 10, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Fed Chair Powell Says Targeted by Federal Probe

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), at the US Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, US, December 10, 2025. (Reuters)
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), at the US Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, US, December 10, 2025. (Reuters)

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Sunday that US prosecutors have opened a probe into his comments to lawmakers and threatened an indictment, a move he said is part of President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on monetary policy decisions.

Powell added in a statement that the bank received grand jury subpoenas on Friday, "threatening a criminal indictment" related to his Senate testimony in June, which concerned a major renovation project of Federal Reserve office buildings.

He dismissed the possible threat of indictment over his testimony or the renovation project as "pretexts."

"The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President," Powell said.

He branded the "unprecedented action" part of the "administration's threats and ongoing pressure."

The Fed, which makes independent monetary policy decisions, has a dual mandate to keep prices stable and unemployment low.

Its main tool in doing so is by setting a key interest rate that influences the cost of borrowing across the economy, while its board members typically serve under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

Trump has consistently pressured Powell and the central bank to move faster in lowering interest rates, in a breach of the long-standing independence of the institution.

Trump on Sunday denied any knowledge of the Justice Department's investigation into the Federal Reserve.

"I don't know anything about it, but he's certainly not very good at the Fed, and he's not very good at building buildings," NBC quoted Trump saying.

- 'Corrupt takeover' -

Senators from both sides of the aisle blasted the investigation.

"It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question," Republican Thom Tillis said.

"I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed - including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy - until this legal matter is fully resolved," he added.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a democrat, called the probe an assault on the Fed's independence.

"Anyone who is independent and doesn't just fall in line behind Trump gets investigated," Schumer said.

Powell's term as chairman of the Federal Reserve ends in May, and Trump told Politico in an interview last month that he would judge Powell's successor on whether they immediately cut rates.

The US president has openly spoken about ousting Powell but stopped short of doing so, and focused instead on cost overruns for renovation of the Fed's Washington headquarters.

In July, the cost of the Fed's facelift of its 88-year-old Washington headquarters and a neighboring building was up by $600 million from an initial $1.9 billion estimate.

That same month, Trump made an unusual visit to the construction site during which the two men, clad in hard hats, bickered over the price tag for the makeover.