G7 Leaders Meet in France after US and Iran Declare Agreement to End War

Barbed wire fences surround a French Army military zone on the shore of Lake Geneva, in Evian-les-Bains, France, 06 June 2026. EPA/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT
Barbed wire fences surround a French Army military zone on the shore of Lake Geneva, in Evian-les-Bains, France, 06 June 2026. EPA/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT
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G7 Leaders Meet in France after US and Iran Declare Agreement to End War

Barbed wire fences surround a French Army military zone on the shore of Lake Geneva, in Evian-les-Bains, France, 06 June 2026. EPA/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT
Barbed wire fences surround a French Army military zone on the shore of Lake Geneva, in Evian-les-Bains, France, 06 June 2026. EPA/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations meet at a French lakeside resort on Monday shortly after the US and Iran said they had reached a preliminary deal to end their war.

Discussing next steps on Iran will be one of several issues the global leaders will wrestle with during the June 15-17 summit, which will also seek common ground on the war in Ukraine, tackling global economic imbalances and sourcing critical minerals outside of the dominant supplier China, Reuters said.

US President Donald Trump is due to arrive in Evian-les-Bains on Monday for the gathering at a time when global leaders are increasingly wary of the United States, although French officials were glad to have secured his presence after he ‌left last year's ‌G7 summit in Canada early.

Many G7 leaders have been directly impacted ‌by ⁠Trump's volatile moves on ⁠the global stage that have upended the Middle East, global trade and diplomacy. His actions have led to larger questions about the US commitment to the post-war global order it helped establish.

Trump is due to meet with Middle Eastern leaders and attend a working session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the summit.

The Zelenskiy meeting on Tuesday comes at a time when Russian advances in Ukraine have slowed and Ukraine seeks more military funding from its allies.

Zelenskiy's hand has improved since Trump famously told him in the Oval Office last year: "You don't have the ⁠cards".

But he may find greater US support elusive as Trump prioritizes drawing a ‌line under then Iran conflict, which has dented his support ‌domestically.

IRAN DEAL

G7 leaders will be keen to learn the details of the US-Iran deal. A memorandum of understanding is ‌scheduled to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland but precise terms were not immediately known.

Trump said the ‌Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping route for global oil and gas supplies that Iran has effectively shut down for months, would open on Friday, and that he had ordered the end of the US blockade of Iranian ports.

In a statement, the secretariat of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would ‌end permanently starting on Monday night.

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said a more expansive agreement would be negotiated during a 60-day ceasefire period, including sanctions ⁠relief for Iran. Iran's nuclear ⁠program will be addressed in those later talks, sources had previously told Reuters.

The United Arab Emirates, directly harmed by the war, and key mediators Qatar and Egypt will also attend the G7.

MACRON'S MOMENT

Trump will be greeted on Monday by French President Emmanuel Macron, for whom this summit serves as a diplomatic capstone for his second and final term in office, which draws to a close next year.

Macron is increasingly seen as a lame duck domestically but he still has pull on the global stage, and was able to get Trump to agree to a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday.

Macron has sought to use France's presidency of the G7 to push for action on global macroeconomic imbalances, a longstanding US concern, before Washington takes the chair of the G20 this year and the G7 next. France has framed the issue as a shared responsibility in that China overproduces, the United States overconsumes and Europe underinvests.

Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea have been invited to the G7 to join the discussion, while Macron has urged China to boost its own consumption.



Visiting Iraq, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Hails ‘New Order’ in the Region

 Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (C) speaks during a press conference at the site where Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed by a US airstrike in 2020, near the airport, upon his arrival in Baghdad on August 19, 2026. (AFP)
Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (C) speaks during a press conference at the site where Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed by a US airstrike in 2020, near the airport, upon his arrival in Baghdad on August 19, 2026. (AFP)
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Visiting Iraq, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Hails ‘New Order’ in the Region

 Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (C) speaks during a press conference at the site where Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed by a US airstrike in 2020, near the airport, upon his arrival in Baghdad on August 19, 2026. (AFP)
Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (C) speaks during a press conference at the site where Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed by a US airstrike in 2020, near the airport, upon his arrival in Baghdad on August 19, 2026. (AFP)

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Wednesday stressed the importance of strengthening the "new order" in the region, on the first stop in a three-day visit to Iraq.

Ghalibaf's trip comes at a time when Iraq is facing American pressure to disarm factions close to Tehran, which wields significant political influence in Iraq.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who took office three months ago with US backing, has pledged to restrict weapons to the control of the state.

Speaking from the site near Baghdad airport where Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a 2020 US strike, Ghalibaf said: "Our trip to Iraq today is aimed at strengthening the new order in the region and accelerating the strengthening of cooperation between all countries in the region without foreign interference."

"Resistance in Iraq is... one of the elements of this country's power. Today, resistance has gone beyond the borders of Iran and Iraq... and has become global," he added.

Ghalibaf is scheduled to meet al-Zaidi later on Wednesday and then hold a meeting with the Coordination Framework, the largest bloc in parliament, made up of Shiite parties with varying degrees of proximity to Tehran.

Iraq has been pulled into the Middle East war, with pro-Iran factions have launching attacks on US interests, which Washington has responded to with deadly strikes. Iran has also shelled positions belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.

Iraq is facing mounting challenges in maintaining a balance between Iran and the United States, and since the US invasion in 2003 it has been an arena of rivalry between the two powers.

Al-Zaidi has given the armed factions -- some of which belong to the Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” -- until September 30 to hand over their weapons to the state, coinciding with the scheduled end of the mission of the US-led coalition against the ISIS group.

Some of the most powerful factions, however, and those closest to Iran, refuse to cooperate.

On Thursday, Ghalibaf will head to the city of Karbala where he will take part in ceremonies marking 40 days since the funeral of former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28.


North Korea Leader’s Sister Says ‘Unaware’ of Reported Kim-Trump Communication

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, speaks at the National Emergency Prevention General Meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea. (KCNA via KNS/AFP via Getty Images file)
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, speaks at the National Emergency Prevention General Meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea. (KCNA via KNS/AFP via Getty Images file)
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North Korea Leader’s Sister Says ‘Unaware’ of Reported Kim-Trump Communication

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, speaks at the National Emergency Prevention General Meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea. (KCNA via KNS/AFP via Getty Images file)
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, speaks at the National Emergency Prevention General Meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea. (KCNA via KNS/AFP via Getty Images file)

The powerful sister of Kim Jong Un said Wednesday she was "unaware" of reported communication between her brother and Donald Trump, after the US president hinted at contact with the North Korean leader, but said ties between the two remained "excellent".

Kim Yo Jong's statement came hours after Washington and Seoul announced their annual exercises would end about a week earlier than planned following an order from Trump to scale them back.

Trump said on Sunday that he had told the Pentagon to curtail the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises -- a day before they started -- citing his "good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Asked on Monday whether Kim had responded to his requests for a conversation, Trump said: "Yeah, he has."

But Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, said Wednesday she was unaware of any such contact between her brother and Trump.

"Regarding the recent news from Washington about communication between the leaders of North Korea and the United States, I am completely unaware of it," she said in a statement.

"It is likely the only matter concerning our top leadership's foreign policy that I am unaware of."

Kim Yo Jong nevertheless said her brother still had "good memories and feelings" about Trump and that the relationship between the two leaders remains "excellent".

Earlier Wednesday, Seoul's military said the drills would wrap up on Friday, not on August 27 as originally planned.

"We have decided to adjust the UFS exercise period to run from the 17th to the 21st," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The decision was made "at the suggestion of the US side", it added.

The Pentagon said the "substantially reduced" drills would "preserve essential readiness and... (cause) no degradation to US training objectives".

The exercises are designed to prepare for a possible attack by North Korea.

They were understood to consist of two phases: the first, focused on defending against potential North Korean threats, was due to run until Friday; and the second, focused on a counteroffensive, from August 24 to 27.

The second phase is now understood to have been scrapped.

Kim Yo Jong, however, dismissed the reduction, saying: "We do not consider it worth commenting on and find it completely uninteresting."

She said reducing the scale or duration of the exercise did not change their "provocative and aggressive" character.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has long voiced outrage at the exercises, considering them dress rehearsals for an invasion.

Wednesday's early morning commentary by the state-run Korean Central News Agency said they pose "the most immediate and open threat" to North Korea and "regional security".

That commentary did not mention Trump's order or his desire to resume talks with Kim, with whom he has hinted at being in contact.

- 'Much safer' -

In the initial announcement on his Truth Social platform, Trump described the drills as unfriendly towards a country that had been respectful to him.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told lawmakers on Wednesday that Seoul had not been informed in advance of Trump's plan to downsize them.

"Neither our government nor US government officials knew in advance what President Trump revealed via Truth Social," Cho said.

Trump has insisted that he is making the situation "much safer" through his ties with Kim.

"There has been persistent speculation that Washington could seek renewed talks with Pyongyang ahead of the November US midterm elections," Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

"For Trump, a meeting with... Kim Jong Un could offer a chance to secure a foreign-policy legacy."

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed US officials, that Trump is pushing aides to set up a meeting with Kim as soon as this autumn.

"Reducing exercises could have a positive impact on the possibility of US-North Korea dialogue," Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha Womans University, told AFP.

"The suspension of joint exercises has always been a prerequisite for North Korea to engage in dialogue with the US," he added.

Trump and Kim met three times in his first spell in the White House, but they have not held talks during his second term.

The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country's defenses, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Trump has repeatedly criticized longstanding US alliances, casting doubt on Washington's commitment to security in East Asia and alarming regional partners.


Brazilian Police Say at Least 23 Killed in Minibus and Truck Crash

An ambulance arrives at the 28 de Agosto, in Manaus, Brazil, April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly
An ambulance arrives at the 28 de Agosto, in Manaus, Brazil, April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly
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Brazilian Police Say at Least 23 Killed in Minibus and Truck Crash

An ambulance arrives at the 28 de Agosto, in Manaus, Brazil, April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly
An ambulance arrives at the 28 de Agosto, in Manaus, Brazil, April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

A minibus and a truck collided head-on in the southern Brazilian state of Parana, killing at least 23 people and injuring five others early Wednesday, police said. 

Both vehicles were traveling in opposite directions, authorities said. Preliminary evidence suggests that the truck, which wasn’t carrying any cargo, crossed into incoming traffic and collided with the minibus at around 3:30 a.m., Brazil’s traffic police said. 

The crash happened on a highway near Ipiranga, a city of 14,000 residents in central Parana state and 560 kilometers (350 miles) south of Sao Paulo. 

The minibus passengers included healthcare workers, patients and a few family members, authorities said. The death toll included 21 adults and two children. 

Emergency teams and local police were still working at the site hours later.  

Footage from TV Globo shows the truck parked on grass on the side of the road and the crushed minibus, with shattered glass and belongings of the passengers strewn on the ground.