Ukrainian Becomes 3rd Man to be Charged with Fires Linked to UK PM

FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo
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Ukrainian Becomes 3rd Man to be Charged with Fires Linked to UK PM

FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo

British police on Wednesday charged a third man, a Ukrainian national, with arson offences over a series of fires at properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Over five days earlier this month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader.

Petro Pochynok, 34, was charged with conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, and will appear in a London court later on Wednesday, Reuters quoted police as saying in a statement.

Two men, Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, have both been remanded in police custody after being charged over the last few days in connection with the fires.

None of the suspects have been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act which aims to target hostile state activity.

Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents "an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for".



Report: In Call, Europeans Urge Iran to Return to Nuclear Talks Immediately

Traffic flows past a huge billboard bearing a painting of a missile falling on Israel with the slogan in Farsi: "The missile has fallen amidst the demons", on a main road in central Tehran on July 16, 2025. (AFP)
Traffic flows past a huge billboard bearing a painting of a missile falling on Israel with the slogan in Farsi: "The missile has fallen amidst the demons", on a main road in central Tehran on July 16, 2025. (AFP)
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Report: In Call, Europeans Urge Iran to Return to Nuclear Talks Immediately

Traffic flows past a huge billboard bearing a painting of a missile falling on Israel with the slogan in Farsi: "The missile has fallen amidst the demons", on a main road in central Tehran on July 16, 2025. (AFP)
Traffic flows past a huge billboard bearing a painting of a missile falling on Israel with the slogan in Farsi: "The missile has fallen amidst the demons", on a main road in central Tehran on July 16, 2025. (AFP)

Iran must resume diplomatic efforts immediately to reach a "verifiable and lasting" nuclear deal, ministers from France, Britain, Germany and the EU's top diplomat told their Iranian counterpart, a French diplomatic source said on Thursday.

"The ministers also reiterated their determination to use the so-called 'snapback' mechanism, which allows for the reinstatement of all international sanctions against Iran, in the absence of concrete progress toward such an agreement by the end of the summer," the source said after the first call between all the ministers since Israeli and US airstrikes on Iran's nuclear program in June.