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Female Iranian Student Arrives in Iran After Release in France

Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari arrives for her trial on charges of promoting terrorism on social media at a Paris courthouse on January 13, 2026. (AFP)
Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari arrives for her trial on charges of promoting terrorism on social media at a Paris courthouse on January 13, 2026. (AFP)
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Female Iranian Student Arrives in Iran After Release in France

Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari arrives for her trial on charges of promoting terrorism on social media at a Paris courthouse on January 13, 2026. (AFP)
Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari arrives for her trial on charges of promoting terrorism on social media at a Paris courthouse on January 13, 2026. (AFP)

Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari, who was held in France for over a year, has returned home, Iranian state television reported Wednesday, a week after Iran released two French citizens. 

"Mahdieh Esfandiari, a Palestinian rights activist, has returned to Iran after her release from prison in France," state television said. 

Esfandiari's release came a week after French citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who spent more than three years in Iranian prisons on espionage charges, arrived in France. 

Iran had previously suggested the couple could be freed as part of an exchange for Esfandiari. 

Esfandiari, around 40 years old, was arrested in France in February last year on charges of promoting terrorism and released on bail in October. 

In February this year, a French court sentenced her to one year in prison for justifying terrorism over comments she made on social media, including regarding the Palestinian group Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. 

She had lived in France since 2018, graduating from the University of Lyon and working as a translator. 

Kohler and Paris were arrested in Iran in May 2022 but were freed in November after more than three years in prison on espionage charges that their families vehemently deny. 

They were taken by French diplomats to France's mission in Tehran, where they lived under house arrest until their full release on April 7. 

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World

US Judge Strikes Down Policy Suspending Immigrant Visa Processing for 75 Nations

Trump pursued a strict immigration policy, which he says aimed to improve national security. (Reuters)
Trump pursued a strict immigration policy, which he says aimed to improve national security. (Reuters)
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US Judge Strikes Down Policy Suspending Immigrant Visa Processing for 75 Nations

Trump pursued a strict immigration policy, which he says aimed to improve national security. (Reuters)
Trump pursued a strict immigration policy, which he says aimed to improve national security. (Reuters)

A US judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statutory authority.

US District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy that the State Department announced in January was "patently unlawful" and ran afoul of federal immigration law, which explicitly stripped the secretary of state of authority over ‌consular officers' ‌processing of immigrant visas.

"The Policy, which ‌categorically ⁠prohibits the issuance ⁠of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme," she wrote.

The State Department's suspension that also took effect in January impacted applicants from Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay; Balkan nations such as Bosnia ⁠and Albania; South Asian countries Pakistan and Bangladesh; ‌and those from ‌many nations in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.

The State ‌Department said applicants from those countries were "at a ‌high risk for becoming a public charge and recourse to local, state and federal government resources in the United States." The department did not immediately respond to a request for ‌comment on the ruling.

Vargas, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, issued ⁠the ruling ⁠in a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together along with applicants for immigrant visas and US citizens who are sponsoring family members from the designated countries for immigrant visas.

President Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive immigration crackdown that he says is aimed at improving domestic security. Rights groups say the crackdown has violated free speech and due process rights and has created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling

World

US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait Before Planned Xi-Trump Meeting

US and Taiwan flags fly outside the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) in Taoyuan on March 30, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
US and Taiwan flags fly outside the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) in Taoyuan on March 30, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
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US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait Before Planned Xi-Trump Meeting

US and Taiwan flags fly outside the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) in Taoyuan on March 30, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
US and Taiwan flags fly outside the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) in Taoyuan on March 30, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)

A US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace on Friday, in a move the US 7th Fleet said "demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific".

The Chinese military tracked and monitored the patrol and reconnaissance aircraft throughout the transit, the state-backed Global Times newspaper reported, citing a military source, saying the "situation was under ‌control".

US military ‌ships or aircraft every few ‌months ⁠pass through or above ⁠the waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China — missions that anger Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the United States next month to meet President Donald Trump as Washington and Beijing look to stabilize ⁠ties marred by issues including Taiwan, trade ‌disputes and technology ‌curbs.

"By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance ‌with international law, the United States upholds the ‌navigational rights and freedoms of all nations," the 7th Fleet said in a statement.

"The aircraft's transit of the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States' commitment to ‌a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and ⁠operates ⁠anywhere international law allows."

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the US say the strait is an international waterway.

Beijing has repeatedly said the Taiwan issue is its internal affair and at the core of Beijing's interests — a red line that must not be crossed or trampled on.

Taiwan's government rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying that only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

World

Russian Strikes Kill at Least Two People in Ukraine

Firefighters work at the site of a shopping mall hit by Russian drone strikes in Kryvyi Rih, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine August 21, 2026. Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Hanzha via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
Firefighters work at the site of a shopping mall hit by Russian drone strikes in Kryvyi Rih, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine August 21, 2026. Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Hanzha via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
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Russian Strikes Kill at Least Two People in Ukraine

Firefighters work at the site of a shopping mall hit by Russian drone strikes in Kryvyi Rih, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine August 21, 2026. Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Hanzha via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
Firefighters work at the site of a shopping mall hit by Russian drone strikes in Kryvyi Rih, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine August 21, 2026. Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Hanzha via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS

Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least two people early Saturday, local authorities said, a day after a deadly attack on a busy shopping center.

Kyiv City Military Administration reported a fire in a warehouse in the capital's Darnytskyi district after issuing an alert for a ballistic missile.

"According to preliminary information, unfortunately, there is one person dead and several injured," the administration said on Telegram.

In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone killed a man and wounded four people, according to the head of the regional military administration Ivan Fedorov.

The strikes came after a series of Russian bombings killed at least 20 people in Ukraine on Friday, including 16 in a daytime drone attack on a busy shopping center in President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown Kryvyi Rih.

Rescue operations continued through the night, according to regional military governor Oleksandr Ganzha, who reported nine people missing, including two children.

Rescue services said the attack wounded 130 people, including 23 children.

The United Nations reported that the civilian death toll so far this year had risen to its highest level since the first months of the war.

Kyiv has repeatedly appealed to its allies for additional support as Russia steps up its strikes, with Ukrainian forces struggling in particular to intercept salvos of ballistic missiles.

Ukraine has also escalated retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, in part to pressure Moscow to the negotiating table to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

Diplomatic efforts have failed to move the two sides towards a deal, with Russia demanding sweeping territorial and political concessions from Kyiv.

Zelensky has ruled out agreeing to those terms, arguing it would amount to an effective capitulation that would leave his country exposed to another Russian attack.