Middle East war live: Trump says US will begin 'blockading' Strait of Hormuz

Live: Hungary votes in crucial election that could oust populist Orban

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces his biggest challenge on Sunday as the country votes in crucial elections that could hand victory to his centre-right rival Peter Magyar. Orban, an ally of US President Donald Trump and one of the European Union's biggest antagonists, has run an aggressiv...

'Undeterred’: Hungarian investigative journalist faces threats and espionage accusations from Orbán

Gavin Lee is pleased to welcome Szabolcs Panyi, VSquare’s Budapest-based lead investigative editor in charge of Central European investigations and investigative journalist at Direkt36. His reporting into alleged ties between Hungary’s political leadership and Russian state actors triggered an...

Undeterred’: Hungarian investigative journalist faces threats and espionage accusations from Orbán

Gavin Lee is pleased to welcome Szabolcs Panyi, VSquare’s Budapest-based lead investigative editor in charge of Central European investigations and investigative journalist at Direkt36. His reporting into alleged ties between Hungary’s political leadership and Russian state actors triggered an...

🔴 Middle East war live: Trump says US will begin 'blockading' Strait of Hormuz

US, Iran fail to agree on peace deal

⁠Iran's ⁠Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad ​Baqer Qalibaf ​said Sunday that Iran raised "forward-looking" ​initiatives ‌during talks ⁠in Islamabad ‌but that the US failed ⁠to "earn" the trust of the Iranian delegation. US Vice President JD Vance said earlier that 21 hours of peace ta...

Celin Dion to perform 16 concerts in Paris

Starting in September, legendary singer Celine Dion will perform 16 concerts in Paris. This will be Dion’s first performances after a lengthy break prompted by a rare health condition. As fans flock from overseas, ticket sales, hotels and restaurants could bring hundreds of millions of euros to t...

US and Iran fail to reach a deal after peace talks in Islamabad

The United States and Iran ended peace talks on Sunday without reaching a deal to end the war, leaving a fragile two-week ceasefire in doubt as both sides blamed each other for the breakdown and signaled little progress on core disputes....

Lebanon protests talks with Israel

Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are set to begin Tuesday in Washington, with Israel urging Lebanon’s government to take responsibility for disarming Hezbollah — a move widely seen as nearly impossible and one that could risk pushing the country into civil war, which some analysts say wo...

Latest exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine

Ukraine’s military says it has documented 469 Russian violations of the 32-hour Orthodox Easter ceasefire. Governors in two Russian border regions say Ukrainian drones struck targets in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, injuring five people. Jenni Shin reports....

Iran-US: Talks ended after 21 hours without reaching agreement

US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that 21 hours of peace talks in Pakistan between the US and Iran had failed to produce an agreement to end the war. Each side blamed the other for the failure of the negotiations....

Russia refuses to extend Easter truce unless Zelensky 'accepts its terms'

Russia warned Sunday it will not extend an Orthodox Easter truce with Ukraine unless Volodymyr Zelensky accepts its terms, saying the war will resume if Kyiv refuses. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cast the decision as Zelensky’s, arguing peace could come “literally today” if Ukraine agree...

'The Last Cedar of Lebanon': A play exploring war’s lasting scars

Aïda Asgharzadeh was widely praised for her powerful exploration of dissidence and exile in Persian Dolls, weaving her own family’s story into a drama spanning Iran and France. Her deft use of history as a backdrop to intimate, personal narratives is once again in focus with her latest play, The...

Planes fly from Beirut airport despite Israeli bombing

Smoke from an Israeli strike still lingered in the air as a plane from Lebanon's national carrier took off from Beirut airport, which has stayed open despite the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah....

Russia and Ukraine trade strikes before temporary ceasefire

An Orthodox Easter ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine began on Saturday. The Kremlin said it had ordered a 32-hour truce from 4pm (13:00 GMT) to midnight on Sunday, a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a halt to hostilities for the holiday. France 24 correspondent Gulliver...

Iran, US top officials meet face-to-face

The United States and Iran began negotiations Saturday in Pakistan, days after a fragile two-week ceasefire was announced, as the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets entered its seventh week. FRANCE 24's Andrew Hilliar tells us more....

Mexico seeks to curb reliance on US gas

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced plans to use new hydraulic fracturing technologies, or fracking, to reduce Mexico’s reliance on foreign energy amid the Iran war. She framed the approach as a form of sustainable extraction, but communities who say they have been harmed by frackin...

Russia and Ukraine exchange 175 prisoners of war each

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 prisoners of war and seven civilians each on Saturday, in a rare moment of cooperation facilitated by the UAE. ...

Who is Iran's Chief negotiator Ghalibaf?

The 70-member Iranian delegation taking part in negotiations in Pakistan today is being led by one of Tehran’s most prominent non-clerical figures, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Caroline Baum takes a look at the man Iran has entrusted with securing an end to the war on term...

US, Iran sit down for talks in Islamabad

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and US Vice President JD Vance met in Islamabad on Saturday as peace talks to end the broadening war in the Middle East got under way. The US delegation is set to meet Iranian officials later in the day. The latest updates with our France 24 correspondent Sha...

An Orban loss in Hungary’s election could be the turning point Putin fears

Hungary's legislative elections on Sunday are being closely watched in Moscow. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long been Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ally within the European Union, and a victory for the opposition Tisza party led by Peter Magyar could undermine the Kremlin's influenc...

Russia, Ukraine to begin Orthodox Easter truce

A pause in fighting in the Ukraine war was set for Sunday, but it does not appear to be taking hold. Russian drone strikes killed at least two people in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, just hours before a proposed Easter ceasefire was due to come into effect. Russian President Vladimir...

Ceasefire & Peacetalks, Hungary 'False Flags' & Final Rallies

In a week that started with US President Donald Trump threatening to wipe out a whole civilisation in Iran if the regime failed to respond to his ultimatum, pesidential decorum went out of the window, with Trump unfiltered, f-ing and jeffing on Easter Sunday as he warned Iran to open the Strait of...

Middle East war live: Iranian media say peace talks with the US have begun in Islamabad

Iranian media reported Saturday that negotiations to end the six-week war between Iran and the United States had begun in Islamabad, Pakistan, which is mediating the peace efforts. US Vice President JD Vance met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier in the day ahead of the three-way talks...

Russia and Ukraine begin 32-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Easter

An Orthodox Easter ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine began on Saturday. The Kremlin said it had ordered a 32-hour truce from 4pm (13:00 GMT) to midnight on Sunday, a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a halt in hostilities for the holiday....

Russia and Ukraine set to begin Easter truce

A temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine for Orthodox Easter is set to begin on Saturday afternoon, as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war falter....

'Trump harbors an unexplained sympathy for Vladimir Putin', Ukrainian analyst says

Ukrainian leadership on April 8 hailed the two-week ceasefire reached between the U.S. and Iran but stressed it is time to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine as well. Speaking with FRANCE 24's Mark Owen, Peter Zalmayev, Founder and Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, says that the...

‘We thought Beirut was going to collapse’: recounting the deadliest day of the war with Israel

In a series of unannounced and unexpected attacks, Israel struck Beirut and several other parts of Lebanon without warning on Wednesday, killing more than 300 people and wounding at least 1,000. Local residents, lawyers, doctors and aid workers contacted by phone describe the “bloody” day that...

Beirut hospitals overwhelmed, survivors recount carnage scenes

A day after intense Israeli strikes pounded Lebanon’s capital, survivors on Thursday recounted scenes of carnage as hospitals struggled to cope with a surge of casualties. Wednesday marked the deadliest day in Lebanon in more than five weeks of renewed war between Israel and the Lebanese militant...

'We can provide more durable cooperation with Gulf countries', Ukraine defence industry chief says

Speaking to FRANCE 24, Ihor Fedirko, CEO of the Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry, said Kyiv is seeking “sustainable and durable cooperation” with Gulf states on drone defence technology – a partnership he says has accelerated since the war in the Middle East. He added that Ukraine has t...

Inside the Iran war decision making: NYT describes how Trump chose to go to war

An exclusive report published in the New York Times, with the title 'How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran' outlines how, in the run up to the Iran war, President Trump weighed his instincts to go to war against the deep concerns of his vice president and also a pessimistic intelligence assessme...