عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

In Call with NATO Chief, Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Says Pressure Needed on Russia

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on May 20, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a meeting with the Crown Prince of Norway in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on May 20, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a meeting with the Crown Prince of Norway in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
TT
TT

In Call with NATO Chief, Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Says Pressure Needed on Russia

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on May 20, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a meeting with the Crown Prince of Norway in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on May 20, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a meeting with the Crown Prince of Norway in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he had spoken by telephone to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and that they had discussed joint steps and the need to put pressure on Russia to secure "a just peace".

"It is important that all decisions are coordinated. Then the sanctions will work. Without pressure on Moscow, a just peace cannot be achieved. Everyone understands this," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian leader has been calling European allies in the last two days to seek more pressure on Russia after US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Monday.

For Ukraine and its allies, who spent months trying to win the Trump administration over to their cause in the war started by Russia, the US leader's call with Putin put them back at square one.

The US president dropped his earlier insistence on an unconditional 30-day ceasefire that he hoped would kickstart what promise to be long and tortuous peace talks.

Trump also signaled that the war he once promised to end in 24 hours was no longer his to fix - a message that leaves Ukraine vulnerable and its allies worried.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
TT
TT

King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)

Britain's King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrive in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on the city, part of a four-day state visit to the US.

The king and queen's visit to New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to the US Congress, held private meetings with President Donald Trump amid tensions between the US and Britain over the Iran war, and sat down with leaders of the US tech industry.

At a White House state dinner on Tuesday night, Trump suggested Charles told the president he did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The king is not a spokesman for the UK government and it could not be confirmed that Charles made the statement to Trump.

Britain was one of the countries alongside the US that negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which sharply limited Tehran's nuclear programs and opened them to inspectors until Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement during his first White House term.

Charles and Camilla's visit to New York comes on the third day of their state visit to the US during a tense time in relations between the US and Britain after Trump has repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for what Trump says is his lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.

Charles and Camilla will begin their day in New York with a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by al Qaeda suicide bombers on September 11, 2001, an attack that killed nearly 2,800 people.

Charles is expected to meet with New York City's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the ceremony.

The king will then head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity, according to local media. Such projects have been a passion of the king's for decades.

Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of A.A. Milne’s fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a "literary engagement" event.

World

UK Police Say Two Men Stabbed in London in Stable Condition

Elements of the British police (Reuters)
Elements of the British police (Reuters)
TT
TT

UK Police Say Two Men Stabbed in London in Stable Condition

Elements of the British police (Reuters)
Elements of the British police (Reuters)

British police said on Wednesday that a man had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two men were stabbed in an area of north London with a large Jewish population.

London's Metropolitan Police said the two men who had been stabbed had been taken to hospital and were in a stable condition.

The suspect also attempted to stab police officers, the Met said, adding that no officers were injured, Reuters reported.

"Specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation and working with the Metropolitan Police to establish the full circumstances and any links to terrorism," the Met said in a statement.

Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said that "investigators are considering all possible motives".

World

UN: Iran Has Executed 21, Arrested 4,000 Since Start of War

A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TT
TT

UN: Iran Has Executed 21, Arrested 4,000 Since Start of War

A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested more than 4,000 since the beginning of the Middle East war, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Since the US-Israeli strikes sparked the war in late February, at least nine people have been executed in connection with the protests that rocked Iran in January 2026, another 10 for alleged membership of opposition groups and two on spying charges, the UN's rights office said.

More than 4,000 people are meanwhile estimated to have been arrested on national security-related grounds, the agency added, according to AFP.

It said many detainees had been victims of forced disappearances, torture or "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment", including forced confessions -- sometimes televised -- and mock executions.

"I am appalled that -- on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict -- the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them by the authorities, in harsh and brutal ways," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

"I call on the authorities to halt all further executions, establish a moratorium on the use of capital punishment, fully ensure due process and fair trial guarantees, and immediately release those arbitrarily detained."