Welcome to Mazzaltov World News. We have the latest global news headlines and insights into all the latest Current Affairs, Sports, Health, Weather, Entertainment, Business and Travel News from around the world.
US and Iran close to nuclear deal, Trump says
US President Donald Trump says that Iran has “sort of” agreed to the terms of a nuclear deal with the United States.
Trump described the latest talks between the two countries, which ended on Sunday, as “very serious negotiations” for “long-term peace”.
Earlier, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader told NBC News that Tehran was willing to make concessions on its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
The US has insisted that Iran must scrap its uranium enrichment to prevent the country developing nuclear weapons – though Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.
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Romania braces for heated presidential vote after controversial annulment
Romania is heading towards its most polarised presidential election in the country’s democratic history, with voters braced for the battle between a right-wing populist and a centrist technocrat on Sunday.
Recent polls show the race is close, with only a few percentage points separating the two candidates – George Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and Nicusor Dan, an independent and the current mayor of Bucharest, where 25 percent of the country’s 19 million citizens live.
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US Supreme Court hears arguments on Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship
Donald Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship is set to be argued at the US Supreme Court, in a case that could help further his agenda on immigration and other issues.
The court will hear arguments on Thursday about whether lower court judges can block presidential orders for the entire country.
Trump moved to end birthright citizenship within hours of returning to the White House in January, signing an order that said children who are born in the US to undocumented immigrants are not citizens.
Three federal judges stopped it from taking effect, part of a pattern of courts blocking Trump’s executive orders. Trump contends they did not have the power to issue the nationwide injunctions.
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Israel kills dozens in Gaza as Palestinians mark 77 years since the Nakba
More than 82 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a wave of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, deepening an already catastrophic toll after 19 months of unrelenting bombardment.
This comes as Palestinians mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled by Zionist militias during the creation of Israel in 1948.
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Georgetown academic released from immigration detention after judge’s ruling
Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri has been freed from a Texas detention centre after he was arrested as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on activists across college campuses.
A federal judge ordered the release of Mr Suri, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the prestigious Washington DC institution on a student visa.
An Indian national, he was arrested outside his Virginia home on 17 March by immigration agents.
His lawyers say he was targeted “for speech in support of Palestinian rights and family ties to Gaza”. US authorities accuse him of “spreading Hamas propaganda” and having “connections to a known or suspected terrorist”.
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New Zealand to debate suspensions of Maori legislators over protest haka
A New Zealand government committee has recommended that three Indigenous legislators be temporarily suspended from parliament for performing a protest haka last year.
The Privileges Committee recommended on Wednesday evening that Te Pati Maori party co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi be suspended for 21 days.
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Mark Carney says Canadians are not ‘impressed’ by UK’s invite to Trump
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said Canadians were not “impressed” by the UK government’s invitation to US President Donald Trump for a second state visit.
The newly elected Carney told Sky News that the UK’s invitation earlier this year did not help Canadians, who were facing repeat comments from Trump about making Canada the 51st US state.
“To be frank, [Canadians] weren’t impressed by that gesture… given the circumstance,” he said. “It was at a time when we were being quite clear about the issues around sovereignty.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer invited Trump to come to the UK for a visit during a meeting at the White House in February.
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South Africa’s Ramaphosa to meet Trump in US next week amid rising tensions
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet United States President Donald Trump at the White House next week in an attempt to “reset” ties between the two countries, Pretoria has said.
The reported visit comes after the US welcomed dozens of white Afrikaners as refugees this week, following widely discredited allegations made by Trump that “genocide” is being committed against white farmers in the majority-Black country.
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US judge charged for allegedly helping man evade immigration officials
A judge in the US state of Wisconsin has been charged for allegedly helping a Mexican man evade immigration officials through a back door during an arrest attempt.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested in April. Now a federal grand jury has approved the two charges against her, which could see the judge face a prison term.
It marks a further escalation of Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, and has provoked an outcry from Democrats, who accuse the Trump administration of attacking the judicial system.
Judge Dugan’s defence lawyers argue that she is shielded from prosecution by a legal immunity that protects judges carrying out official acts.
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Guest house in Japan under fire for asking Israeli guests about war crimes
A guesthouse in Japan says it is under pressure from local authorities to change a policy asking guests to declare that they have never committed war crimes, following complaints by Israel’s ambassador.
Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen has accused the WIND VILLA guest house in Kyoto of discrimination following an incident in April in which an Israeli tourist was asked to sign a pledge stating he had never “been involved in any war crimes that violate humanitarian and international law”.
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Sperm donor ‘dad-of-180’ loses parental rights bid
An unregulated sperm donor, who claims to have fathered more than 180 children around the world, has been denied increased parental rights for a child he fathered as a donor through natural insemination.
Robert Albon, who posted sperm samples packaged with frozen tomato puree to keep them cold, sought parental control and contact with the girl, born in 2023.
High Court judge Mr Justice Poole refused Mr Albon’s bid, claiming the serial donor “seeks to control others” and could move on to another family “as he has done previously”.
He said: “The evidence before the court shows that Mr Albon will have sex with, or provide his sperm for artificial insemination, to just about anyone who asks.”
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Qatar says recent Israeli Gaza attacks show lack of interest in ceasefire
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that a series of recent Israeli attacks on Gaza show that Israel is not interested in ending the war.
In an interview with the US news outlet CNN on Wednesday, Al Thani said that he had hoped that the release of a US-Israeli soldier named Edan Alexander from captivity in Gaza would be a “breakthrough that will help bring back the talks on track” but that Israel had instead opted to step up strikes on the Strip.
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BBC joins Gaza children as they are evacuated to Jordan for treatment
We were flying through the warm light of the setting sun. There were villages and small towns where the lights were coming on. It was a peaceful landscape where people walked and drove without constantly looking to the sky.
We were over the suburbs of Amman when Safa’a Salha held up her mobile phone so that I could read a message she’d written.
“Oh my God,” this Gaza mother wrote, “Jordan is so beautiful.”
The evacuees had come to the Jordanian border by road. I joined them there for the final part of the journey by helicopter to Amman.
Beginning of the end? Ukraine’s front-line soldiers eye Russia talks with hope
Big plumes of smoke are visible on a screen that’s providing a live feed from Ukrainian drones hovering over the outskirts of the eastern city of Pokrovsk, one of the most intense front lines in Ukraine.
A few seconds earlier, Ukrainian artillery strikes Russian positions, places where we’d seen Russian soldiers moving about as they try to advance towards a key road going into Pokrovsk.
At least one Russian soldier is injured, possibly dead after the strike.
It’s chilling to watch the live footage. It drives home the bloody consequences of the war that Russia started, in which hundreds of thousands have so far been killed, a “never-ending bloodbath” as US President Donald Trump calls it.
We are in a rural house converted into a command centre for the 155th mechanised brigade of the Ukrainian army. It’s a few miles from front-line artillery positions.
The scale of the devastation that we see on the screens, homes and buildings completely flattened, is far greater than what we saw six months ago.
It is evidence of the fierce battle that has been fought over the past several months to defend Pokrovsk, a crucial transport hub in the Donetsk region.
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Three Maori MPs face suspension over ‘intimidating’ haka
A New Zealand parliamentary committee has proposed that three Māori MPs be suspended from parliament for their protest haka during a sitting last year.
Opposition MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke began the traditional group dance after being asked if her party supported a controversial bill – which has since been voted down – to redefine the country’s founding treaty.
The haka could have “initimidated” other lawmakers, the committee ruled, recommending that she be suspended for a week and Te Pāti Māori (Māori Party) co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer be banned for 21 days.
The Māori Party criticised the recommendations as a “warning shot to all of us to fall in line”.
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Cut-price Magna Carta ‘copy’ now believed genuine
A manuscript once considered an unofficial copy of Magna Carta is now believed to be a genuine version and ”one of the world’s most valuable documents”, according to UK academics.
Harvard Law School paid $27.50 (then about £7) for it in 1946 and for years it has remained tucked away in its library, its true identity unknown.
But two medieval history professors have concluded it is an extraordinarily rare and lost original Magna Carta from 1300, in the reign of King Edward I, that could be worth millions.
”This is a fantastic discovery,” said Prof David Carpenter from King’s College London, who began analysing it after seeing digitised images of it on the US university’s website.
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Trump says India willing to charge ‘no tariffs’ on US goods
US President Donald Trump has said that India has offered to drop all tariffs on goods imported from his country.
The Indian government has “offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff”, Trump said at an event in Doha.
India and the US are currently in talks to negotiate a trade agreement.Delhi has not commented yet on the remarks. The BBC has reached out to India’s commerce ministry for comment.
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Juror removed from mushroom lunch murder trial
A juror in the trial of an Australian woman accused of killing three relatives by feeding them poisonous mushrooms has been removed for possible misconduct.
Erin Patterson – who has pleaded not guilty – is on trial for the murder of three people and the attempted murder of another, after they ate lunch at her home in July 2023.
The male juror was discharged on Thursday after the judge found there was a “reasonable possibility” he had discussed the case with family and friends.
The judge told the court there was no definitive evidence that the man had discussed the trial with outsiders, but reminded the remaining jurors they should only talk about the case “in the privacy of the jury room”.
Why India could not stop IMF bailout to Pakistan
Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $1bn (£756m) bailout to Pakistan – a move that drew sharp disapproval from India as military hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours flared, before a US-led ceasefire was unexpectedly declared.
Despite India’s protests, the IMF board approved the second instalment of a $7bn loan, saying Islamabad had demonstrated strong programme implementation leading to a continuing economic recovery in Pakistan.
It also said the fund would continue to support Pakistan’s efforts in building economic resilience to “climate vulnerabilities and natural disasters”, providing further access of around $1.4bn in funding in the future.
In a strongly worded statement India raised concerns over the decision, citing two reasons.
Delhi questioned the “efficacy” of such bailouts or the lack thereof, given Pakistan’s “poor track record” in implementing reform measures. But more importantly it flagged the possibility of these funds being used for “state-sponsored cross-border terrorism” – a charge Islamabad has repeatedly denied – and said the IMF was exposing itself and its donors to “reputational risks” and making a “mockery of global values”.
The IMF did not respond to the BBC’s request for a comment on the Indian stance.
Even Pakistani experts argue that there’s some merit to Delhi’s first argument. Pakistan has been prone to persistently seeking the IMF’s help – getting bailed out 24 times since 1958 – without undertaking meaningful reforms to improve public governance.
“Going to the IMF is like going to the ICU [intensive care unit]. If a patient goes 24 or 25 times to the ICU then there are structural challenges and concerns that need to be dealt with,” Hussain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the US, told the BBC.