World

GENEVA — Ukraine and Russia wrapped the first of two days of U.S.-mediated peace talks in Geneva after a night of Russian airstrikes that battered Ukraine’s energy grid, with President Donald Trump publicly pressing Kyiv to move quickly toward a deal to end the four-year war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the overnight attacks severely damaged the power network in the southern port city of Odesa, leaving tens of thousands without heat and water. “We are ready to move quickly toward a worthy agreement to end the…

Deportation of Irish man Seamus Culleton stayed for at least 10 working days as U.S. government response due A court order has paused the deportation of Irish national Seamus Culleton for at least the next 10 working days, his attorneys said, marking the latest turn in a case that has kept him in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in El Paso, Texas, for nearly five months. In a statement, BOS Legal Group said the court also directed the government to file its response in the case “in the coming days.” The firm…

Gisele Pelicot has spent two years learning to live inside a story the world could scarcely fathom. Now, in a memoir released this week, the 73-year-old French woman who became a galvanizing figure in the fight against sexual violence lays out, in spare and searing detail, how she survived a crime orchestrated within her own home — and why she chose to attach her name and her face to a case that forced France to look hard at itself. In “A Hymn to Life,” Pelicot retraces the 2024 mass-rape trial in which her former husband,…

U.S. forces killed 11 people in strikes on three alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command said in a post on X late yesterday, renewing a contentious campaign that has drawn mounting legal scrutiny. Southern Command said the attacks hit “three vessels being operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” killing four people on each of two boats in the Eastern Pacific and three on a third boat in the Caribbean. No U.S. military personnel were harmed, the command…

Rev. Jesse Jackson, the towering civil rights leader and one of the United States’ most influential Black voices, died peacefully this morning at 84, his family said, prompting an immediate outpouring of tributes from political leaders and activists at home and abroad. President Donald Trump praised Jackson as “a force of nature like few others before him” and credited himself with helping the iconic minister in his efforts to empower Black Americans. Trump posted his remarks on his Truth Social platform. Former Vice…

Israel has approved a process to register land in the occupied West Bank as “state property,” prompting swift condemnation from Arab governments, the United Nations and the European Union, which warned the move would further entrench Israeli control and undercut prospects for a Palestinian state. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the measure, approved late Sunday, is meant to enable “transparent and thorough clarification of rights to resolve legal disputes” following what it called unlawful land registration in areas…

Sweden warns Russia stepping up ‘hybrid’ threat activity, raising risk in Baltic region Russia has intensified hybrid threat activities and is demonstrating a greater willingness to take risks around Sweden, the head of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST) said as the agency released its annual threat review. “Russia has, in certain cases, stepped up actions and increased its presence, and perhaps with a greater risk appetite, in our vicinity,” MUST chief Thomas Nilsson said. He added he expects the…

Jesse Jackson, the U.S. civil rights leader, Baptist minister and two-time Democratic presidential candidate who rose from the segregated South to become a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., has died at 84, his family said in a statement. “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said. Jackson, a long-time Chicago figure and an electrifying orator, disclosed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s…

Jesse Jackson, the Baptist minister and civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and elevated Black political power for more than six decades, died peacefully this morning at 84, his family said in a statement. “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the family said. “His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he…

Zelensky says diplomacy needs ‘justice and strength’ as Russia, U.S., Ukraine open Geneva talks GENEVA — Trilateral talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were set to begin in Geneva on Monday as a Russian delegation led by nationalist historian and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky arrived in the Swiss city around 6 a.m., according to a member of the Russian team. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky framed the diplomatic push as inseparable from sustained pressure on Moscow, saying talks would…