Iran and the United States held a second round of nuclear talks Saturday in Rome, where both sides agreed to begin drafting a potential deal. Iran’s foreign minister confirmed the move, while a U.S. official reported “very good progress.”
In a forceful Saturday night address following Hamas’s rejection of the latest hostage deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “I will not surrender to murderers.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting some Venezuelans in the country who’ve been identified as members of violent gangs, including the terrorist organization, Tren de Aragua.
Easter Sunday remained far from peaceful in Ukraine as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia intensified shelling and the use of drones. The reported attacks came despite Moscow’s announcement of an Easter ceasefire.
As Easter approached, there was some hope for hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war and scores of injured soldiers, with officials saying they were being exchanged on Saturday. It also came after U.S. Vice President JD Vance cautiously expressed optimism about an end to the more than three-year war following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Hamas has formally rejected Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal, criticizing it as a “partial” deal that fails to guarantee a complete end to the war or a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The United States may abandon efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine within days if no clear progress is made, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on April 18. Speaking after talks in Paris with European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said President Trump is prepared to “move on” from the negotiations in the absence of any clear signs of progress.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced a Christian man to death on Good Friday on controversial charges of blasphemy against Islam, Christians told Worthy News.
Christians across autocratically-ruled Nicaragua “are celebrating Holy Week” leading up to Easter under the watchful eye of police and paramilitary forces, Christians told Worthy News on Good Friday.
Italy’s rightwing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says U.S. President Donald J. Trump has accepted her invitation for an official trip to Rome at a time when the third largest economy in the European Union tries to bridge differences between the EU and the U.S. over trade and security.