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Vladimir Putin met with freed Russian-Israeli hostage Sasha Troufanov, who spent nearly 500 days in captivity in Gaza, and urged him to thank his Hamas captors for the “humanitarian act” of releasing him. “The fact that you managed to go free is the result of the fact that Russia has stable, long-term relations with the Palestinian people, with its representatives, and with a wide variety of organizations,” the Russian president told Troufanov at the Kremlin, where he was joined by his mother, Elena Trufanova, and partner, Sapir Cohen, who were also both abducted by Hamas. “I think we need to...

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Thursday that Israel "had failed to respect" January’s ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, APA reports, citing Al Arabiya. “As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately Israel did not abide by this agreement,” said the ruler of Qatar, a key mediator of the deal. Putin on Thursday told Sheikh Tamim that it was important for Moscow to discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict and the future of Syria during the Qatari ruler’s visit to Moscow.

More than 200 journalists, including prominent members of the French press, lay down on the steps of the Opéra Bastille in Paris in a symbolic "die-in" as the names of the reporters killed in Gaza were read out on Wednesday. Many wore red-stained press signs and fake flak jackets as they carried photographs of journalists killed in Gaza while trying to report on the war launched by Israel after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “Gaza of faces, not just numbers”, read posters bearing photographs of their fallen Palestinian colleagues. “You can see them behind me, showing pictures of those...

Russian leader tells Sasha Troufanov, his mother and partner of 'need to express words of gratitude' to political heads of terror group who murdered his father during Oct. 7 attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin met Wednesday evening with freed hostage Sasha Troufanov at the Kremlin in Moscow, along with his mother, Elena Trufanova, and partner, Sapir Cohen, both of whom are also former captives. “The fact that you managed to go free is the result of the fact that Russia has stable, long-term relations with the Palestinian people, with its representatives, and with a wide variety of organizations,” Putin told...

Iran's right to enrich uranium is not negotiable, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday, ahead of a second round of talks in Oman this weekend with the United States about Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. Araqchi was responding to a comment made on Tuesday by the U.S. top negotiator Steve Witkoff, who said Tehran must "stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment" to reach a deal with Washington. "We have heard contradictory statements from Witkoff, but real positions will be made clear at the negotiating table," Araqchi said. "We are ready to build trust regarding possible concerns over Iran's enrichment (of...

President Trump has vowed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon — but inside his national security team there's a divide over the best way to do it. -snip- One camp, unofficially led by Vice President Vance, believes a diplomatic solution is both preferable and possible and that the U.S. should be ready to make compromises in order to make it happen. Vance is highly involved in the Iran policy discussions, another U.S. official said. This camp includes also Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff — who represented the U.S. at the first round of Iran talks on Saturday — and...

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel said Wednesday it would keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, where a relentless military offensive has turned the Palestinian territory into a "mass grave", a medical charity reported. Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the besieged territory of 2.4 million people. "Israel's policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population," Katz said in a statement. "No one is currently planning to allow any humanitarian...

Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, ratified a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Wednesday, Russia's TASS state news agency reported. President Vladimir Putin signed the 20-year strategic partnership pact with his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, in January. The upper house ratification means the treaty is now in effect.

Sudan is facing the worst humanitarian crisis on record, according to the British government, which is hosting a conference on Sudan today. After they killed nine health workers, raped scores of women, killed hundreds, set fire to people’s shacks and forced up to 80,000 to flee, the men of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) filmed themselves careering through Zamzam Camp in Sudan’s Darfur Province in mud-covered military vehicles yelling “God is great!” and flashing victory signs. A thousand kilometres to the east, their primary enemy, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), are consolidating their hold on the capital, Khartoum, which they...

Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, but he is also a very important personage in Islam. While both religions assign him great respect and importance, their teachings differ in some important ways. What are these differences? In particular, what do Muslims believe about the crucifixion of Jesus? Why Jesus features in Islam First of all, let us consider why Jesus is an important figure in Islam. Islam is one of the three main Abrahamic religions. The other two are Judaism and Christianity. All three of them view Abraham as an important figure in their early history. In the first...

He had no doubts at first, but slowly they emerged. He was struck, he says, by the fact that the first coins bearing Muhammad’s name did not appear until the late 7th century — six decades after the religion did. He traded ideas with some scholars in Saarbrücken who in recent years have been pushing the idea of Muhammad’s nonexistence. They claim that “Muhammad” wasn’t the name of a person but a title, and that Islam began as a Christian heresy. Prof. Kalisch didn’t buy all of this. Contributing last year to a book on Islam, he weighed the odds...

Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into an attack on three prison officers by Hashem Abedi, one of the men responsible for the Manchester Arena bombing. The officers sustained life-threatening injuries on Saturday including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham, the Prison Officers' Association said.

Lawmakers in Russia’s lower-house State Duma on Tuesday ratified a 20-year strategic partnership treaty with Iran, deepening military and political ties between the two countries as they remain under heavy Western sanctions. The pact, signed by President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in January, aims to strengthen cooperation in areas including defense, intelligence sharing, trade and nuclear energy. “The agreement takes [Russian-Iranian relations] to a fundamentally new level,” Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said last week ahead of the vote. One of the treaty’s key provisions commits Russia and Iran to counter shared security threats, exchange intelligence and...

Zimnako Salah, a Sunni radical, planted fake bombs at churches to terrorize Christians. An ISIS-inspired radical who planted fake bombs at multiple Christian churches while also developing the means for a real church bombing was convicted Friday of a federal hate crime. "This Department of Justice has no tolerance for anyone who targets religious Americans for their faith," said Attorney General Pam Bondi. "The perpetrator of this abhorrent hate crime against Christians will face severe punishment." Zimnako Salah, 45, traveled to four Christian churches across three states — Arizona, California, and Colorado — in the fall of 2023 wearing black...

Iranian state media boosted recent comments from controversial political commentator Tucker Carlson that suggested an American military confrontation with Iran would be “suicidal” for the US. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the official news agency of the state of Iran, published an article on Tuesday highlighting Carlson’s comments, in which the far-right podcast host and media personality warned the US against prosecuting a “destructive” war with Iran. Carlson cautioned that the US would surely “lose” any military confrontation with the Islamist regime and blamed unspecified “neocons” for suggesting federal lawmakers adopt a more aggressive posture toward Tehran. -snip- The...

I’ve heard enough about the Crusades, that America was built on stolen land or that Israel sits on occupied land. That’s life. Get over it. The reality is, for most of mankind’s and civilization’s history, the world has been ordered by the most physically powerful individuals and civilizations. I mention the Crusades first because for the last quarter century we’ve been told that Muslim terrorism is somehow understandable because of the Crusades. We’re led to believe that the evil European Christians were invading the lands of the innocent peaceful Muslims and trying to steal the Holy Lands. Well, that is...

Pro-Israel activist and evangelical leader Laurie Cardoza-Moore called on US President Donald Trump on Tuesday to place a tariff on conservative media personality Tucker Carlson's show after he tweeted in support of Iran. “Tucker Carlson is acting like a foreign agent, doing the bidding of Iran and Qatar instead of America. It’s time for the White House to impose a Tariff on Tucker Carlson for illegally importing anti-Semitic Iranian talking points and putting America last,” Cardoza-Moore said. Cardoza-Moore, who hosts Focus On Israel on NRB TV, claimed that Carlson has used the term ‘neocons’ as a dogwhistle meaning ‘blame the...

[C]hildren holding fake Kalashnikov and AK-47 rifles were seen on the streets of the Mother City during the annual Quds Day protest on 28 March, which is held on the last Friday of Ramadan. Wearing headbands and keffiyehs in the style of Palestinian terrorists, the children played at being “terrorists”, crouching on one knee to aim at their targets. About 500 people took to the streets for the protest, with a multitude of Hezbollah flags and images of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. African National Congress (ANC) leader of the opposition in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature and ANC Western...

Yet another child has been married because of Islamic laws that no one wishes to admit exist, much less counter in any way. The BBC reported Tuesday that “an eight-year-old girl, who had been missing for six months, was found living with a man who said he was her husband.” This man, identified as Sheikh Mahmoud, “initially said he was solely teaching the girl the Quran. But after legal complaints were filed, he changed his statement, saying he had married the girl with her father’s consent.” He did this based on Islamic law: “When asked by the BBC how he...

Prisoners refusing to join radical Islamist gangs are being held in isolation to keep them safe from death threats and attacks. Officers are keeping vulnerable prisoners in segregation units at HMP Frankland in Co Durham to separate them from Islamic extremists, the Times reports. The prison, one of the highest-security jails in Britain, is said to have become so overrun with Islamic gangs that its 'terrorist separation centres', which were built in a bid to stop terrorists from radicalising others, have become defunct. This has caused other prisoners into isolation units as they are believed to be at risk of...