Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
A British court has convicted two men for a series of arson attacks targeting properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
On Monday, the jury in London found Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Romanian Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, guilty of conspiracy to commit arson. The verdict was delivered following a months-long trial held in the British capital.
The attacks were carried out over five days in May last year and targeted a house Starmer vacated when he became prime minister in 2024. A house he part-owned was also targeted, along with a car that used to belong to him.
While officials have said they have no evidence that the attacks were sponsored by a hostile state, an unverified report released the same day asserted that the attacks were part of a campaign of sabotage and disinformation run by Russian intelligence services.
Lavrynovych was also convicted on two counts of damaging property by fire and of being reckless as to whether the lives of others were endangered in the process.
A third man, Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted of conspiracy to damage property by fire.
Prosecutors told the court that Lavrynovych was directed by a Russian-speaking individual in May last year to carry out the attacks in return for a payment of around $4,000 in cryptocurrency. They said the person used the alias ‘El Money’ and contacted Lavrynovych via the messaging app Telegram.
No evidence was presented to suggest that ‘El Money’ was acting on behalf of a hostile state, but Counter Terrorism Policing London said the online handler was attempting to cause “unrest” in the UK.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that they knew who they were targeting, and that that was the prime minister,” said Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London.
The two men are due to be sentenced on Friday.



Flanagan added that “clearly the intention from the online tasker was to create fear, both for the victim and the prime minister, and cause uncertainty, unrest, for the UK”.
El Money, who was never identified or charged, requested video of the attacks, which could be shared online to generate publicity.
On Monday afternoon, the BBC reported that its own investigation had found the attack was part of “an extensive campaign of sabotage, provocation and lies leading all the way to the Russian state”.
The British public service broadcaster named El Money as a 23-year-old Russian diplomat named Evgeny Lyukshin, who it stated “is close to the highest levels of power in Moscow”.
Al Jazeera was unable to immediately verify the report.
The Russian embassy told the BBC: “We reject any attempt to associate Russia or its foreign ministry with unlawful activities,” adding that Russia poses “no threat to the United Kingdom or its people and harbours no aggressive intentions towards Britain”.
More than 1,000 civilians in Sudan have been killed in drone strikes in the first five months of 2026, according to the United Nations.
The death toll is due to a “sharp” increase in the use of drone warfare in the country’s vicious civil war, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Volker Turk said in a speech on Monday.
“In Sudan, the horrific conflict has expanded and escalated, marked by a sharp increase in the use of drone warfare,” he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
On top of documenting more than 1,000 civilians being killed in the first five months of this year, the UN office also reported “rampant” levels of sexual violence, including rape.



The war in the African nation started in April 2023 when a rivalry between Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, exploded into war. The conflict, which had first started in the capital Khartoum, soon spread to several areas of the country.
After three years of continuous violence, Sudan has turned into the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crisis, according to the UN. About 13.6 million people are currently displaced, more than 20 million require health assistance and 21 million “desperately” need food, according to the World Health Organization.
Figures on the overall death toll vary greatly. War-tracking group the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) reports about 56,000 people killed. Other estimates are of up to 150,000 people or higher.
According to several human rights groups and the UN, fighting has included mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The crisis shows no sign of improving, with both sides rapidly adapting tactics and increasingly relying on drones. In June, ACLED said Sudan’s war had transformed over the past year into a drone-dominated conflict.
“Both sides are in a relentless race to recalibrate in the face of their adversary’s shifting technologies and tactics, even to the point of some drone-on-drone combat,” the group said.
The trend has also fuelled concerns about the increasing role of automation in warfare and the need for stronger international regulations governing autonomous weapons systems.
“Autonomous weapons cannot become a license for atrocity crimes,” Turk said.
Beirut, Lebanon – On Monday morning, people in Lebanon woke up to yet another ceasefire agreement. An agreement announced between the United States and Iran includes Lebanon – according to Iranian and Pakistani officials – but statements from Israeli officials cast doubt over whether the war that has been ravaging southern Lebanon since 2023 is finally over.
Videos on Monday showed Lebanese people returning home to areas in the south of the country, though officials warned anyone from border villages not to return until the security situation becomes clearer.
Others, however, have little to return to.
Ali Saleh, a 55-year-old from the southern village of Jwaya, has been displaced at a stadium in Beirut since early March.
“I won’t be heading back home,” he told Al Jazeera. “My house was hit and you know the situation financially is difficult at the moment.”
On March 2 , Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for the second time in under two years. The intensification came just a few hours after the pro-Iranian Shia group Hezbollah fired six rockets at Israel, its first response to more than 10,000 Israeli violations of the 2024 ceasefire. Hezbollah launched the attack following the February 28 killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening salvoes of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Since then, Israel has killed at least 3,783 people in Lebanon and wounded 11,699. More than 1.2 million have been displaced from the south, Beirut’s southern suburbs and villages in the Bekaa Valley. Villages have been razed by Israel’s military, which occupies large swathes of southern Lebanon.
In recent weeks, evacuation orders and widespread Israeli bombing of Tyre and Nabatieh have led to mass destruction in two of the south’s most populated areas. The Lebanese army announced on Monday that people should exercise caution when returning to their homes, while Lebanese officials said that people from border villages should not yet return home.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said the deal between the US and Iran announced “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon”.
The announcement was welcomed by Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun – who has been attempting to reimpose the authority of the Lebanese state in the country. Aoun said that the Lebanese people were now looking forward to “these understandings being translated into practical steps that bring a definitive end to the cycle of violence and open the way to stability, security, recovery and reconstruction”.
Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker and close Hezbollah ally, Nabih Berri, praised the deal and various regional actors for their role in achieving it, including Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
He also thanked Iran and the US for including a clause “on halting Israeli aggression against all of Lebanon, to preserve its sovereignty over its entire territory”.



Despite the trepidation, many Lebanese are already returning home.
“People started returning to their villages and areas and now they are waiting for the full implementation of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israelis from the areas they occupied,” Qassem Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst told Al Jazeera. “People cannot get a clear read on the situation just yet.”
This also is not the first time a ceasefire has been declared between Lebanon and Israel. The November 2024 agreement called for a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese land and for a cessation of hostilities, while Hezbollah was required to withdraw its armed presence north of the Litani River.
But Israel never stopped firing on Lebanon, and Hezbollah – supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – reportedly started preparing for another round of fighting. Israel also didn’t fully withdraw its troops, continuing to occupy five points along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Hezbollah has said repeatedly that it would not allow the situation to return to a pre-March 2 reality, with Israel having the freedom to attack and Hezbollah no right to respond.
On April 16 , US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. The declaration brought an end to attacks on central Beirut and decreased the regularity of attacks on Beirut’s suburbs, though Israel has attacked them since, including on Sunday. But the war in southern Lebanon continued unabated.
On June 3 , Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire after a round of direct negotiations between the two countries. But that declaration had little effect as Israel kept attacking Lebanon and Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at Israeli troops in Lebanese territory and across the border.



Questions remain over whether the two sides will respect the ceasefire.
As of Monday afternoon, Hezbollah had not carried out any operations since the US-Iran deal was announced, according to Reuters.
But Lebanese state media reported that an Israeli drone strike on a car in southern Lebanon had killed its driver.
Israeli officials have met the US-Iranian agreement’s announcement with defiance. Leading politicians have repeatedly insisted that they will not accept any threat from Lebanon, and will continue to attack Hezbollah if they deem it necessary.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are pursuing a clear policy of maintaining the Israeli army in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, without setting a time limit, in order to protect Israel’s borders and towns from jihadist elements,” Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said on Monday. “We oppose the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanon, despite all current and future pressures.”
Analysts have expressed scepticism over the deal.
“Netanyahu may come up with a lot of surprises, and he may have a power trip with Trump, where he tries to enforce his own terms of the deal,” Karim Safieddine, a non-resident fellow with the Tahrir Institute, told Al Jazeera.
Political analyst Kassir said he felt that the new ceasefire was different and that the larger war was over. However, he maintained, there is still work to be done before normal life can resume in Lebanon.
“No one trusts the US or Israel,” adding that for Lebanon to have long-lasting and permanent security, it still needed “Israel’s withdrawal, a return of people to their villages” and a defence plan that has national consensus – unlike the current polarisation that exists over Hezbollah’s role in the country.



United States President Donald Trump says “ships are starting to move” through the Strait of Hormuz, as US officials maintained that a digital memorandum of understanding on an initial deal to end the US-Israeli war with Iran had already been signed.
The statement on Monday came after both the US and Iran announced plans to hold signing ceremony in Switzerland on Friday.
While no official text of that agreement has been released, US Vice President JD Vance and a senior US official on Monday maintained that the terms were already set and that both sides had signed a digital version of the agreement.
Both the US and Iran have said the initial deal would see the Strait of Hormuz open, the US naval blockade on Iranian ports lifted, and fighting halted on all fronts.
More entrenched issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, its support for proxies in the region, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, and the lifting of sanctions were expected to be addressed during a 60-day negotiation period.
“Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, shortly before arriving in France for a Group of Seven (G7) Summit.
“They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine,” Trump added, referring to a shipping route in the strait that traverses Oman’s territorial waters.



The route has been a concern due to maritime mines.
“There are other areas of travel, also!!!” Trump said.
Meanwhile, a US military advisory released on Monday said the ongoing US naval blockade of Iran’s ports would remain in effect until the signing ceremony planned for Friday, according to Reuters news agency.
“A military blockade ⁠of Iranian ⁠ports remains in effect restricting all traffic ⁠inbound and outbound ⁠from these ⁠ports,” the advisory said.
“Do not attempt to ‌cross until explicit direction is ‌given.”
While international oil markets rebounded following the positive signals towards a deal, if the strait were to be fully reopened, it is expected to take months for operations to return to normal.
On Monday, shipping and maritime security forces told Reuters news agency that mine-sweeping operations could continue for 40 to 50 days before many insurance and shipping companies would be confident enough to permit passage through the arterial waterway.
Some companies, however, have indicated they will start transiting sooner.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has said about 500 ships are waiting to pass through the strait, with about 20,000 stranded crew.
Speaking alongside Trump in France on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said France and United Kingdom will lead a mission to coordinate the reopening.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recorded 46 US and Iranian attacks on international shipping lines throughout the conflict.
Trump, meanwhile, said the Strait of Hormuz would be “completely open” by Friday.
Official details of the plan to open the strait have not been released, nor has the thornier question of its future administration.
The waterway had been open prior to the US and Israel launching attacks on Iran on February 28.
Experts have warned that the conflict has reinforced the strait’s significance as a key point of leverage for Iran, enabling it to effectively close the route or levy tolls.



On Monday, US Vice President JD Vance told CNBC that he expected the strait to be “opened in a toll-free way for the long term”. He added the issue would be discussed in “technical negotiations”.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, indicated on Monday that “fees” will be charged.
“Our goal is to pave the way for a secure passage in this waterway,” he said. “We need a certain period of time to discuss with the other sides this important matter.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, framed the breakthrough as a victory for Tehran in statements on Monday.
Still, he pointed to “minor differences in a very short section”, without elaborating.
In a separate interview on ABC News, US Vice President Vance said that the MoU had already been signed “digitally” on Sunday, suggesting that the as-yet-unreleased terms were not subject to change before Friday.
A senior US official, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, also said that Vance, Trump and Iran’s top negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, had already signed the digital agreement.
Iran has not confirmed that Ghalibaf has already signed.
The official said that the US may make some small gesture as part of the memorandum of understanding, but unfreezing Iranian funds and lifting sanctions would be subject to Iran’s behaviour going forward.
The official also said that US force posture would remain unchanged in the Middle East pending the 60 days of negotiations following the MoU signing, but that a future reduction was possible.
He added that while Washington has said the deal includes a pause in fighting in Lebanon, it did not explicitly require Israel to withdraw from the areas of the country it is currently occupying.
Speaking from France, Trump said Vance will attend the planned MoU signing in Switzerland and that the text of the agreement would be released on Friday or later.
Trump described the MoU as “all signed”.
“I may be involved, I may not,” he said of possible attendance at the signing event.
The United Kingdom’s Court of Appeal has ruled that the British government was right to proscribe the Palestine Action activist group as a “terrorist” organisation last year.
Palestine Action is a British protest group which was founded six years ago and describes itself as a movement “committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.
On Monday, police made more arrests of protesters demonstrating in support of Palestine Action outside the Court of Appeal in London.
Since the group’s proscription, which also bans support for proscribed groups, about 3,000 people have been arrested.
The Metropolitan Police welcomed the ruling and said it would continue to arrest those who protest in support of the group.
Here is what we know about the ruling:
The judgement released on Monday states: “The proscription of an organisation like Palestine Action is highly controversial. But it is a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism”.
The ruling was made by a five-strong panel, including the two most senior judges in England and Wales.
Palestine Action, which was formally proscribed by the UK last July, is a British protest group founded six years ago. It says it uses “disruptive tactics” to target “corporate enablers” and companies involved in the manufacture of weapons for Israel, such as Israeli group Elbit Systems, Italian aerospace company Leonardo, French multinational Thales and Teledyne from the United States. The group has targeted British facilities linked to those companies.
In all, British police say action by the group has resulted in millions of pounds of criminal damage.
A court in London ruled on June 12 that four Palestine Action members convicted of criminal damage at a British facility owned by Israeli weapons group Elbit Systems near Bristol, west England, would be sentenced on the basis that their actions had a “terrorist connection”.



Following the proscription of Palestine Action last year, the group’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, challenged the decision in the High Court. In February, the High Court ruled that the government’s “terror group” ban was unlawful and disproportionate.
The government immediately said it would appeal. “I am disappointed by ⁠the court’s decision ⁠and disagree with the notion that banning ⁠this terrorist organisation ⁠is disproportionate,” ⁠Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ⁠said.
The judgement on Monday agreed with her. Its ruling states: “The Home Secretary had the institutional competence and the democratic accountability to make the decision. The Proscription Decision was consistent with the Home Secretary’s Proscription Policy and was proportionate. It was not unlawful.”
On June 20, 2025, Palestine Action activists broke into the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military aircraft with red paint.
Days after the Brize Norton attack, members of parliament voted in favour of proscribing the group. That classified Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation, bringing it into the same category as armed groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).
Critics decried the vote, arguing that while members of the group have caused damage to property, they have not committed violent acts that amount to terrorism. More than 130 high-profile public figures have spoken out against the proscription.
Other previous actions the group has taken include:



In a statement read by a representative following the ruling, Palestine Action’s Ammori said the group will challenge the judgement in the UK’s Supreme Court.
“We will fight this all the way. We will seek permission to appeal to the Supreme Court and, if need be, take this to the European Court of Human Rights,” Ammori said.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), established by the Council of Europe, allows individuals to hold member states accountable for rights violations through a dedicated court. When the ECHR finds a violation, its judgements are legally binding on the state concerned under the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We will not stop fighting to overturn one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history,” Ammori added.
“This unprecedented abuse of power has devastated the lives of thousands of people while silencing dissent over Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinian people during the genocide, when that dissent could not be more urgent.”
Anas Mustapha, Head of Public Advocacy at CAGE International, said: “This ruling tells us exactly what these powers are for. They are not safeguards against violence, they are authoritarian tools for crushing dissent.”
Mustapha added: “No ruling from any court is going to convince people that their conscience is wrong, and no amount of legislation will make support for Palestine disappear. The only sustainable outcome is the abolition of these laws in their entirety.”
Thomas Bell, acting UK Director of Human Rights Watch, said: “This disastrous decision further cements the UK’s place among countries that are backsliding on human rights by classifying acts of protest as terrorism.”
“When Palestine Action members have committed criminal damage, that should be dealt with under normal criminal laws, not by misusing overbroad and poorly defined terrorism powers. Defining a protest group as terrorists has created an absurd situation where thousands of people peacefully holding up signs have been arrested,” Bell added.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – Israeli forces shot and killed a three-year-old boy as his father carried him in central Gaza, the family has said.
Rayan Abu al-Ajeen was shot in the Wadi al-Salqa area of Deir el-Balah governorate on Sunday afternoon, and his body was taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on Monday.
His father, Bahaa, was shot in the leg and is being treated in hospital.
The family says the father and son had been travelling in areas outside of the so-called ‘Yellow Line’ – not under the direct control of the Israeli military – and were heading towards the family’s greenhouses when the shooting happened.
Jaber Abu al-Ajeen, Rayan’s grandfather, says he was at home next to the family’s farm when he heard gunfire, and discovered that his son Bahaa and another relative he was walking with had been targeted. He then found out that Rayan had been killed.
“My grandson, Rayan, was killed by a gunshot to the head; the bullet entered his head and exited through his eye,” Jaber told Al Jazeera. “His mother is devastated by what happened.”
Al-Ajeen explained that his son had been taken into an area controlled by the Israeli army, and then left bleeding for seven hours until he was transferred to hospital for treatment.
“We are still deeply worried about Bahaa’s condition, as he is not yet stable after bleeding for hours, and the condition of his leg is very serious.”
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the shooting.
Israeli forces have continued attacks in Gaza since the October ceasefire, killing almost 1,000 Palestinians. In total, Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since the beginning of its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
Many of the killings have been near the ‘Yellow Line’, which Israel has continued to expand despite the stipulations of the ceasefire agreement.
Jaber al-Ajeen said the family had long been wary because of their proximity to the ‘Yellow Line’.
“We have lived in this area for a long time,” he said. “We are mere civilians working in agriculture, and all our lands are located outside of the ‘Yellow Line’.



Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says there were moments in the final stretch of negotiations between the United States and Iran when the talks appeared close to collapse.
Each time, he told the National Assembly on Monday, it was Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s powerful military chief, who kept the deliberations alive.
“Throughout this period, he was awake all day and night,” Sharif told lawmakers, adding that Munir had “sacrificed day and night to extinguish the flames of war”.
There were many moments, he said, when “it felt like the negotiations would come to a halt” but the army chief did not give up. “If this journey had not continued,” Sharif said, “the dream of peace would have been shattered.”
The acknowledgement, unusually specific for a process conducted almost entirely out of public view, offered the clearest glimpse yet into how Pakistan pulled off what many had considered an improbable task: brokering a deal to end more than three months of a war that has killed thousands of people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, and disrupted global energy markets.



Sharif also praised Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his team and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi for their “tireless efforts” while paying tribute to the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and China for their roles in the mediation.
Pakistan’s military and its Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Information and Broadcasting did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for details of the US-Iran agreement.
The agreement, announced early on Monday when Sharif broke the news on X, calls for an immediate and permanent end to military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump confirmed the deal shortly afterwards on his Truth Social platform. “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” he wrote.
A signing ceremony hosted by Pakistan is scheduled for Friday in Geneva.



Under the 14-point memorandum of understanding, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency, the US has committed to lifting its naval blockade of Iran within 30 days and withdrawing its forces deployed near Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, which has in effect been shut by Iran since the war began on February 28, is to reopen for normal transit under the agreement.
Iran’s frozen assets, estimated at $24bn, are also likely to be released in phases over the ensuing 60 days of further negotiations, during which both sides are expected to address the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme.
Discussions on Iran’s missile programme and its support for armed groups have been removed from the immediate agenda, according to the Iranian news agency.
The negotiations were conducted under Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the elder Khamenei was killed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israel war on Iran.
Sharif on Monday specifically named the supreme leader among the leaders who had demonstrated “immense wisdom, prudence and patience under extremely difficult circumstances” during the negotiations.
Pakistan’s path to the announcement was neither linear nor, by most accounts, straightforward.
A Pakistan-brokered ceasefire began on April 8 after Munir made a flurry of calls to US officials in the hours before a Trump deadline to strike Iran expired, and the ceasefire held, but only narrowly. Trump subsequently extended it indefinitely upon the “personal request” of Munir and Sharif, according to Pakistani officials.
On April 11 and 12, Pakistan hosted the Islamabad talks, marking the highest-level direct engagement between Washington and Tehran since 1979. But the talks, attended by US Vice President JD Vance, ended without an agreement.
For weeks afterwards, face-to-face negotiations did not resume. At one point, Trump said the two sides could speak by phone if needed.



Meanwhile, Pakistani officials continued shuttling between Washington, DC, and Tehran, but publicly, there was little indication of progress.
Jauhar Saleem, a former Pakistani diplomat, said the arc of Islamabad’s mediation reflected something more fundamental than tactical adjustment.
“It’s not a question of what changed between April and June. It’s rather an example of a never-give-up approach in diplomacy where an honest broker respected by both sides can eventually help overcome an overwhelming trust deficit,” Saleem told Al Jazeera.
Pakistan’s task, he said, was not only to bridge the gap between the warring parties’ positions but also to help navigate the divide between pragmatists and hardliners within each country, particularly Iran.
“Pakistan’s leverage was and remains its credibility as a trusted friend and well-wisher and a fair intermediary,” he said.
But Pakistan was not working alone.
On March 31, Pakistan and China signed a joint five-point peace plan aimed at ending the war. Beijing’s involvement reflected its concerns over the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of China’s oil and gas imports pass.
In May, Munir travelled to Tehran for a second time. Naqvi, whom Sharif on Monday credited for engaging “with Iranian brothers”, accompanied him.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also made multiple visits to Islamabad during the same period, meeting separately with both Munir and Sharif. During one such visit, Araghchi said Tehran intended to engage with Pakistan’s mediators “until a result is achieved”.
By Saturday, Dar was speaking with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Egypt as negotiations entered what Pakistani officials described as their final phase.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud specifically acknowledged Pakistan’s “consistent and sustained efforts in support of mediation and dialogue throughout the process”, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.
That same day, Sharif said the US and Iran had reached a “final, agreed-upon text”, adding: “Peace has never been this close as it is now.”
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, said there were no plans for its negotiating team to travel to sign an agreement in the coming days, a public indication that the final hours remained uncertain.
An Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday, hours before the deal was announced, triggered an angry response from Tehran.
Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf questioned whether Washington had either the “will or the ability” to enforce its commitments. Despite the sharp rhetoric, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signalled that diplomacy remained alive.
Pakistani officials have declined to comment on the finer details of the negotiations or what unfolded in the final hours. The precise mechanics of how the agreement survived that moment remained unclear.
What is known is that Sharif posted on X shortly afterwards, announcing the tentative deal. Trump confirmed it minutes later.
“Nations have sought for decades the respect and honour which has been awarded to Pakistan for its efforts in the peace process,” the Pakistani prime minister told lawmakers on Monday.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported a record daily increase in infections as the Ebola outbreak impacting the country appears to accelerate.
The Ministry of Public Health confirmed on Sunday that 72 new cases had been diagnosed over the previous 24 hours, increasing the number of infected to 782. Another 32 deaths has raised the total to 181.
The rising numbers come as regional conflict, patient escapes, and limited contact tracing undermine containment efforts. Alarm was sounded last week as the virus moved into new areas of the DRC.
The Bundibugyo virus strain has a 22.8 percent death rate so far, with 40 patients recovering, officials said.
“We remain committed to supporting affected countries until transmission is stopped. We call on partners and donors to urgently mobilise resources to strengthen the response and save lives,” Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Sunday.
The outbreak stems from the rare Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the Zaire virus responsible for the DRC’s previous 16 Ebola outbreaks.
Contact tracing coverage has plummeted to 56.5 percent, a sharp decline from the 95% target, Health Ministry officials said.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, warned that “no one knows the true scale” of the outbreak due to dangerous gaps in surveillance and testing.



Eastern Ituri province remains the outbreak’s epicentre, harbouring nearly 95 percent of all confirmed cases. The virus has since breached into North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and spread across the border to Uganda.
Ituri’s humanitarian crisis exacerbates the medical emergency. Nearly one million residents have fled overlapping armed conflicts involving multiple groups, including the M23 rebel movement that controls Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. The area has endured decades of instability, with United Nations reports documenting massacres of more than 100 civilians in gold-rich Ituri villages as various factions vie for control of the region’s mineral wealth.
Thousands of artisanal miners routinely shuttle between clandestine mining sites scattered across the mineral-dense region, creating transmission hotspots that evade health monitoring. The outbreak is believed to have originated in the mining-intensive Mongbwalu Health Zone in Ituri province.
The World Health Organization announced it is ramping up diagnostic testing and contact surveillance operations. However, MSF reports a critical funding gap of $21.5m hampering response efforts.
The risk that a traveller infected with Ebola could arrive in the United States during the 2026 World Cup tournament that kicked off ⁠last week is low but not zero, and if ⁠that happens, US hospitals are ready to respond, US infectious disease experts say.
It was not always so.
During the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, arrived in a Dallas hospital with Ebola symptoms and was turned away before being admitted.
Two nurses were infected but survived.
That led to $260m in US funding for Ebola preparedness training and response capabilities and 13 ⁠specialised treatment centres – all intended to help hospitals identify, isolate and safely care for suspected Ebola patients.
“We’re not going to be able to prevent 100% of infections, but we certainly are the most prepared that we have ever been,” said Dr Gavin Harris, an expert in serious communicable diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, one of 11 US World Cup host cities.
Public health officials and hospitals in the US host cities have been preparing for a range of infectious ⁠disease threats, as 6.5 million fans travel across North America during the 39-day event featuring 104 matches in the US, Mexico and Canada.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization (WHO) have all described the risk of Ebola to World Cup host countries as low, citing measles, COVID-19 and influenza – which spread when large crowds gather – as the most likely threats.
But the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has infected more than 675 people and killed more than 135 remains a concern.
“The risk of Ebola to anyone at the World Cup is extremely low. Ebola isn’t airborne and doesn’t spread through casual contact – it requires direct contact with the body fluids ‌of someone who is ill,” said Dr Tom Frieden, chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives and former director of the CDC.
“But low isn’t zero, and it won’t be zero until the outbreak is stopped at its source in DRC.”
US Ebola preparedness efforts that began in 2015 were born out of a collaboration between Emory University, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in New York City – facilities that cared for Ebola patients during the West African Ebola outbreak, the largest to date.
“There was a recognition that we had a duty to train other facilities to recognise potential patients who might be exposed or sick with something like Ebola,” Emory’s Harris said.
Thousands of healthcare workers have since been trained to recognise and treat patients with Ebola and other serious pathogens.
For the World Cup, preparedness experts have conducted nationwide training exercises simulating a potential MERS outbreak at the games.
They have also compiled guidance for physicians, raising awareness of illnesses not typical of their home cities, including mosquito-borne conditions such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya.
The US, Mexico and Canada have instituted airport ⁠screening and travel bans restricting the entry of non-citizens who have recently travelled to countries affected by the outbreak, and the US has urged Europe to impose similar restrictions. Harris said those ⁠bans are likely to decrease the chances of Ebola at World Cup venues.
To comply with US restrictions, the DRC national football team left the country in May and trained in Belgium before travelling to the US.
In each host city, FIFA, local public health officials and hospital systems have formed medical committees that have been conducting Ebola and other infectious disease threat assessments based on the teams that will play in their cities, diseases prevalent within their home countries, visa restrictions and stadium logistics, Harris said.
Some areas have discussed supplying disease-specific ⁠treatments or protective gear to the venues and are using surveillance tools, including wastewater monitoring, air quality data and electronic medical records, to detect unusual illness clusters.
FIFA said medical-related risks are assessed as part of overall tournament planning and managed in close coordination with the host cities, which provide medical leaders to oversee and coordinate services.
It said it is ⁠monitoring the Ebola outbreak and is in contact with sporting and health authorities in the DRC and the three host countries.
Dr ⁠Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said planning for mass gatherings in the US is not new.
“State and local health departments working in conjunction with CDC have for many years been at the forefront of individuals coming into this country,” he said.
To help with disease monitoring and coordination, Georgetown University has set up an independent Health Security Operations Center, in collaboration with more than 30 public and private sector entities.
More than 700 state and local health authorities have signed up for the group’s daily reports, as have some 60 federal partners, FIFA and ‌the CDC.
Still, staff cuts at the CDC, the US departure from WHO, and strain on state and local health departments that have been battling the biggest US measles outbreak in decades have taken a toll, Frieden and two other experts said.
“My biggest concern is whether a CDC that’s lost thousands of staff has the capacity, support, and mandate to move fast enough – both here and in DRC,” Frieden said.
The US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the ‌CDC, ‌did not respond to a request for comment.
Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s cuts to public health have led to an exodus from government agencies.
“Nonetheless, we know the people who are still there are working around the clock in many cases to try to keep us safe,” she said in a briefing.
Kyiv, Ukraine – After almost seven hours in a kilometres-long, snail-paced line made up of hundreds of cars at a gas station near Crimea’s administrative capital, Simferopol, Dilyaver was lucky enough to buy gas.
He paid $22 for 20 litres (5.3 gallons).
“There were teenagers running around offering gas for 300 rubles [$4.2], one almost got beaten up by angry guys in the line,” the 52-year-old Crimean Tatar man told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
He withheld his last name and personal details because an interview with foreign media could land him in jail.
Judging by licence plates and accents, some of the men in the line were Russian tourists who decided to cut their vacations short and flee via the $4bn, 19km (12-mile) long Crimean Bridge, Dilyaver said.
“The [tourism] season is ruined, that’s bad news for almost everyone here,” he said, referring to the annual arrival of millions of tourists that feeds many on the arid peninsula, where agriculture has suffered after Kyiv dammed a key water artery.
Dilyaver does not know when he will fill up his rundown Skoda again because he expects fuel shortages to get worse.
But the fuel problem is just the tip of the iceberg of problems Crimea has been facing.
“Crimea’s key problem is not because there’s no fuel,” Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University who analyses the Russia-Ukraine war, told Al Jazeera. “The problem is that Ukrainian drones began barraging over the peninsula’s domestic roads.”
Since mid-May, Ukrainian drones have attacked hundreds of trucks carrying fuel, ammunition and other supplies from southwestern Russia to Crimea via the “land bridge” through occupied Ukrainian regions.
The drones, whose operators sit in bunkers up to 200km (124 miles) away from the “land bridge”, also pepper roads with mines that weigh only 500 grams (1.1 pounds) and have magnetic or motion sensors.
Cargo ships trying to get fuel and food to Crimea or transporting steel and grain from occupied regions of southeastern Ukraine have also been attacked.
The attacks “illustrate Crimea’s vulnerability”. Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera. “Ukraine can regularly, daily strike military, infrastructure sites in Crimea … Ukraine turned Crimea into an island surrounded by war and fire.”
Ukraine’s Third Special Battalion said earlier this month that its drone operators have “taken aerial control” of the strategic supply route from the occupied southern city of Melitopol to the Chongar bridge in northern Crimea.
“That’s just the beginning! There’s more to come!” the Battalion said in a Facebook video with footage of exploding and burning trucks.
Chongar is a key entry to Crimea that can barely be called a peninsula because Sivash, also known as The Rotten Sea, a labyrinth of lagoons, salt marshes and wetlands, divides it from mainland Ukraine, leaving only three strips of land wide and firm enough for roads and a railway.
Just more than a week ago, the Chongar bridge was damaged by drones and is only capable of letting light vehicles through, while buses and trucks take a pontoon bridge nearby.
“The bridge is open, the damaged part is cordoned off, one lane is operational, there are no traffic jams because there’s few cars,” a driver who passed through it wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian drones also struck fuel depots inside Crimea – along with air defence systems, airfields, military bases, command centres and the facilities of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that relocated to the Russian port of Novorossiysk after losing at least a third of its vessels.



After Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014, Moscow spent billions of dollars to militarise Crimea by deploying frigates and diesel submarines; advanced S-400 air defence systems; tens of thousands of servicemen; and building new military bases, airfields, radar stations, garrisons and living quarters.
“Putin turned Crimea into a military base, and thus made it the most vulnerable place in the war with Ukraine,” Fesenko said.
The Crimean bridge alone cannot handle the redirected traffic as trucks weighing more than 1.5 tonnes are no longer allowed to pass through.
Early Monday, a Ukrainian drone struck a moving train, killing one of the drivers and prompting Moscow to halt the movement of nine other trains.
Their passengers are being evacuated by buses, Kremlin-appointed authorities said.
Days earlier, one of Russia’s most outspoken warmongers raised his voice about the panic in Crimea.
“What’s happening at Crimean gas stations is a real nightmare for locals and servicemen,” Igor Girkin, an ex-intelligence officer who led the first group of Moscow-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine in 2014, wrote on Telegram on June 1.
Kyiv “acts brazenly … trying to cut off the peninsula and our southern [military] groups from fuel supply,” Girkin, who was sentenced to four years in jail in 2024 after lambasting Moscow’s military failures in Ukraine, wrote from behind bars.
“To some, Crimea seems like a resort. No, today it’s a front-line region,” he wrote.
And to Crimean Tatars such as Dilyaver, what’s happening around them is part of a decades-old struggle for survival in Moscow’s shadow.
Since the annexation, his community of about 250,000, or about one-tenth of Crimea’s population, has been under constant pressure.
Masked officers break into the houses of community leaders, activists or observant Muslims at dawn to search for “extremist materials” that in many cases turn out to be religious texts, including The Quran for Children.
Arrests and trials follow – more than 100 Tatars have been sentenced to jail for “extremism,” “separatism” and “terrorism.”
Another dozen went missing without a trace and are believed to have been abducted and killed by Russian intelligence.
Dilyaver owned a tiny grocery store near Simferopol.
But he faced higher taxes and visits by government inspectors who demanded bribes, so Dilyaver, who also suffered a scam, closed the store. He barely makes ends meet now by selling deep-fried meat and cheese pies next to a bus stop.
Dilyaver’s parents were born in Soviet Uzbekistan after the 1944 deportation of every Crimean Tatar by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who thought their cultural ties to Turkiye posed a threat to the USSR’s security.
“We have a saying, ‘If a Russian lives next to you, keep an axe ready,’” Dilyaver’s 77-year-old mother Gulsum told Al Jazeera. “We suffered from them so much, and it’s far from over.”
Ukrainian attacks triggered food shortages.
Macaroni, flour, canned meat, fish and vegetables have already been swept off the shelves in some stores and supermarkets, Dilyaver said.
“The Soviet mentality is still at work. If there’s a problem – buy buckwheat,” he quipped, about the cheap and nutritious grain that symbolises resilience in the former Soviet Union.

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