World News

STAROBILSK, Russian-controlled Ukraine, May 24 (Reuters) – – Forensic experts on Sunday sifted through the ruins of a dormitory largely destroyed in what Russian authorities say was a Ukrainian drone attack in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, seized and placed under Russian control in the four-year-old war.

Authorities said search operations concluded late on Saturday and put the death toll in the strike on the teacher training college at 21, many of them young women.

The building’s facade was gashed by gaping holes and smashed windows. Piles of twisted metal and concrete lay outside the building looking onto what was once a courtyard, with wrecked desks and cupboards piled up inside.

A worker in protective gear examined pieces of metal and other debris laid out on a tarpaulin as workers from Russia’s Investigative Committee compiled data from the incident on Friday.

Reuters reported from Starobilsk on a media facility trip organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on May 24, 2026.

Ukraine’s military denied responsibility for the attack, saying it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area and that its forces complied with international humanitarian law.

Reuters was not able to independently verify what happened.

“Three waves of UAVs (drones) 10-15 minutes apart,” Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner, Yana Lantrova, told journalists outside the wrecked building as a group of people held up photos of those killed.

“Sixteen UAVs in total. They waited for the children to run out. They fired directly at the children.”

The facility in the east of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, annexed by Russia several months after the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour, was adorned with official Russian state symbols.

A set of instructions on how to act against “the threat of terrorism” was posted on one wall.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to prepare options for retaliation against Ukraine after the attack.

Within a little more than 24 hours, early on Sunday, Russia struck Kyiv and surrounding areas with hundreds of drones and missiles in one of the heaviest bombardments of the city since the start of the war.

The overnight barrage killed four people and was marked by the firing of a Russian Oreshnik hypersonic missile south of Kyiv.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by David Gregorio)

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May 24 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers appearing on Sunday morning talk shows split sharply over a potential deal to end the Iran war, with Republicans mostly backing the publicly reported contours of an agreement being negotiated by President Donald Trump and Democrats dismissing it as accomplishing little.

• Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the reported outlines of a deal sounded like little more than “the pre-war status quo” with Iran. “I think this was a blunder,” Van Hollen said on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “When you’re digging a hole, you should stop digging, and that sounds like maybe what we’re doing finally.”

• Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, praised Trump’s approach to talks with Iran. “I think on the whole what the administration has been able to do for the first time in 47 years is force the remnants of this regime into a negotiation, a real negotiation,” Lawler said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

• Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said Trump was being “played as a fool” in negotiations. “He’s got us in a situation that’s worse than it was before, a more extreme regime,” Booker told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “(The) Strait of Hormuz now is a leveraging point for them. This weak nation has put America in a stalemate.”

• Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee said any deal will have “strict” terms to ensure that Iran has no path to a nuclear weapon. “I think they’ll be very enforceable,” Hagerty told “Sunday Briefing” on Fox News. “And remember … President Trump has used military force to basically annihilate the economic, technological, and military capacity of the Iranian regime. They’re in a fundamentally different place.”

• Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who often criticizes Trump, suggested on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the reported details represent a shift in the administration’s stance. “We were told about 11 weeks ago, by (U.S. Defense ​Secretary Pete) Hegseth and the Department of Defense, that they had obliterated Iran’s defenses and it was just a matter of time before we had the nuclear material,” Tillis said. “Now we’re talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran. How does that make sense at all?”

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Sergio Non and Deepa Babington)

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May 24 (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of the Group of Eight Arab-Islamic states on Sunday strongly condemned the actions of far-right Israeli police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir towards participants in the Gaza-bound flotilla while they were in Israeli detention.

Governments have expressed outrage after Ben-Gvir posted a video in which he taunted activists who were pinned to the ground. Some of the detainees, who had intended to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, later alleged that they were physically assaulted in detention, which Israel’s prison service denied.

The eight nations, which include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, said in a statement: “Ben-Gvir’s deliberate public humiliation of detainees is a disgraceful assault on human dignity and a clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, and international human rights law.”

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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LAGOS, May 24 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu will seek a second and final four-year term in January after overwhelmingly defeating a little-known challenger in ruling party primaries, results showed on Sunday.

• The ruling All Progressives Congress party held its presidential primaries on Saturday after a surprise candidate, Stanley Osifo, challenged Tinubu.

• The president ended up getting nearly 11 million votes against 16,500 for Osifo.

• Tinubu has won plaudits from foreign investors after rolling out some of Nigeria’s boldest reforms, including the removal of fuel and electricity subsidies, ending foreign exchange controls and overhauling the tax code.

• The president’s chances of re-election were enhanced after an opposition pact to field a single candidate against Tinubu collapsed earlier this month.

• Tinubu came into office in 2023 after winning against his two main rivals, who unsuccessfully challenged the result in court, alleging the vote was rigged. Tinubu said he won fairly.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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JIUQUAN, China (AP) — China launched the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft Sunday night with three astronauts heading to its space station, including one set to stay in space for a year.

The spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. The much-anticipated launch comes as China prepares for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030.

The astronauts on the mission are Zhu Yangzhu, the commander, Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, also identified by Chinese authorities as Li Jiaying using the Mandarin transliteration of her name.

Lai, who was born and raised in Hong Kong and has a doctoral degree in computer forensics, is the first astronaut from the city on a space mission.

The crew is set to conduct dozens of science and application projects, state media said. They are also expected to complete an in-orbit rotation with the crew of Shenzhou 21, who has been at the Tiangong space station for more than 200 days.

One of the three astronauts on the Shenzhou 23 mission is scheduled to stay at the orbiting space station for a year in what would be among the world’s longest single stays in space. The astronaut’s mission is to “explore human adaptability and performance limits” in long-duration spaceflight environments, state media reported.

As China steps up its space program, its astronauts have carried out multiple missions to the Tiangong space station, developed after China was effectively excluded from the International Space Station on U.S. concerns over national security.

The U.S. is seen as China’s top space rival, with NASA aiming to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028.

China’s space station Tiangong, which translates to “Heavenly Palace,” first hosted the country’s crew in 2021. Last year, an emergency mission in the Shenzhou program, which means “Divine Vessel,” returned a team of astronauts stranded on the space station due to a damaged spacecraft.

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Associated Press video journalist Wu Jia in Jiuquan, China contributed to this report.

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MANILA, May 24 (Reuters) – Two people feared trapped after a building collapse in the Philippines were alive and communicating with rescuers on Sunday, an official said, as rescue efforts continued.

“They are in constant communication. We are awaiting more details, but our rescuers are doing their best to pull the survivors out of the rubble,” Jay Pelayo, information officer Angeles City north of the capital Manila, told Reuters.

The number rescued in the collapse of the nine-storey building under construction, including those in the vicinity, has risen to 24, with no deaths reported, Pelayo said in a phone interview. Among the rescued was a 51-year-old Malaysian national who was staying in a nearby budget hotel, which was damaged when the concrete structure collapsed.

It was unclear how many were still feared trapped, with a site engineer saying 19 people had been working at the site, Pelayo said. “We are trying to determine whether all 19 were there.”

He had told DZBB radio that 30 to 40 people were feared trapped, based on information from a site foreman who was among those who escaped.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse, but the city engineer was reviewing the construction history, Pelayo said, adding that moving the concrete debris was a challenge for rescuers.

Images shared by DZBB showed the building reduced to a heap of concrete and twisted metal, covered in green netting. Ambulances were on standby and heavy equipment on its way to assist in the rescue, Pelayo said.  

(Reporting by Karen Lema and Eloisa Lopez; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and William Mallard)

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By Asif Shahzad, Michael Martina and Ryan Patrick Jones

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, May 23 (Reuters) – A “largely negotiated” memorandum of understanding on an Iran peace deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday, although the Iranian Fars news agency disputed that claim.

Trump posted on social media that the emerging agreement would reopen the strait, the vital shipping passage whose closure has upended global energy markets since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran in February. He did not say what else would be included in an agreement.

“Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

But Fars reported early on Sunday that the agreement would allow Iran to manage the strait and that Trump’s assertion on the strait was “inconsistent with reality.”

IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM IN FOCUS

U.S. news website Axios reported late on Saturday that the U.S. and Iran were close to a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz with no tolls during a 60-day ceasefire extension, while Iran would be able to freely sell oil and negotiations would be held on curbing Iran’s nuclear program.

In exchange, the U.S. would lift its blockade on Iranian ports and issue some sanctions waivers on Iranian oil, Axios said, citing a U.S. official.

The draft agreement also includes commitments from Iran never to pursue nuclear weapons and to negotiate over a suspension of its uranium enrichment program and the removal of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the Axios report said.

The New York Times reported that the proposed deal includes an “apparent commitment” by Iran to give up its highly enriched uranium. Details of how Iran would cede that stockpile would be left for a subsequent round of talks, the newspaper said, citing two unidentified U.S. officials.

Trump, while offering various war aims during the three-month-old conflict, has repeatedly said the U.S. struck Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran has denied it is pursuing nuclear weapons and says it has a right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.

Iran said on Saturday that it was working toward a memorandum of understanding on ending the war after its top officials met with Asim Munir, the army chief of Pakistan, which has sought to be a mediator.

The Pakistani army said the negotiations had resulted in “encouraging” progress. Two Pakistani sources involved in the talks said the deal being negotiated is “fairly comprehensive to terminate the war.”

Sources have told Reuters the proposed ‌framework would unfold in three stages: formally ending the war, resolving the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and launching a 30-day window for negotiations on a broader agreement, which can be extended.

One of the Pakistani sources said that if the U.S. accepts the memorandum, further talks could take place after the Eid holiday ends on Friday. 

Trump, whose approval ratings have been hit by the war’s impact on U.S. energy prices, said on Friday he would not attend his son’s wedding this weekend, citing Iran among the reasons he planned to stay in Washington.

‘ISSUES STILL NEED TO BE DISCUSSED,’ IRAN SAYS

Trump spoke on Saturday with leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan. The leaders encouraged Trump to agree to the emerging framework, Axios reported.

A call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also went “very well,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

Pakistan has aimed to narrow differences between Iran and the U.S. after weeks of war have left the vital Hormuz waterway closed to most shipping despite a nervous ceasefire.

“The trend this week has been towards a reduction in disputes, but there are still issues that need to be discussed through mediators. We will have to wait and see where the situation ends in the next three or four days,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.

Iran has demanded supervision of the strait, an end to the U.S. blockade on its ports and the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

Baghaei said the issue of the U.S. blockade on Iran’s shipping was important, but that its priority was ending the threat of new U.S. attacks and the ongoing conflict in Lebanon, where Iran-allied Hezbollah militants are fighting Israeli troops who have moved into the south.

Pakistan’s army chief Munir left Tehran on Saturday after talks with Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Qalibaf said Iran’s armed forces had rebuilt their capabilities during the ceasefire and that, if the U.S. “foolishly restarts the war,” the consequences would be “more forceful and bitter” than at the start of the conflict.

Despite weeks of conflict, Iran has preserved its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium as well as missile, drone and proxy capabilities.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Ariba Shahid, Hatem Mater and Andrew Mills; Writing by Philippa Fletcher, Rod Nickel and Sergio Non; Editing by Kevin Liffey, David Gregorio, Nia Williams and Kim Coghill)

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NEW DELHI (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is holding talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Sunday as the two countries look to steady ties that have fallen to their lowest point in over two decades.

Rubio’s visit comes during an economic and diplomatic downturn between the United States and India, strained largely by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies that raised duties on several Indian exports.

Rubio arrived Saturday on his first official visit to India ahead of a meeting set for Tuesday with his counterparts from India, Australia and Japan, which are members of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad.

“India is at the cornerstone of how the United States approaches the Indo-Pacific, and not just through the Quad, but bilaterally,” Rubio said in New Delhi.

His four-day visit will include a multicity tour and a gala reception in New Delhi marking the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.

“In the past one year, statements and rhetoric coming from Washington on some of India’s most sensitive security concerns and trade matters have not been helpful and have created a trust deficit,” said Ashok Malik, a former policy adviser in India’s Foreign Ministry.

“Certain misgivings will remain,” Malik added, noting Rubio’s visit will be considered an achievement if the talks somewhat stabilize the relationship and check further deterioration.

Experts say friction exists between U.S. global strategic ambitions and India’s priorities as an emerging middle power. Historically close to Russia, India has long shown unease as it moves closer to the U.S., which reflects India’s lingering distrust of American intentions rooted in cultural differences and Cold War-era instincts.

Still, India-U.S. ties steadily deepened over two decades into a broad, robust strategic partnership, increasingly shaped in recent years by shared concerns over China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and diplomatically articulated through the Quad forum.

The Quad has repeatedly accused China of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea and aggressively pushing its maritime territorial claims. Beijing maintains that its military is purely defensive to protect what it says are China’s sovereign rights and calls the Quad an attempt to contain its economic growth and influence.

After the U.S. presidential inauguration in January 2025, Rubio’s first formal international engagement was meeting with the foreign ministers of the Quad countries jointly and in separate sessions.

However, a series of events since last year have brought the diplomatic relationship to a low point.

Despite close ties and often being perceived as ideological allies, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi downplayed Trump’s role in brokering a ceasefire after a brief India-Pakistan military conflict triggered by the April 2025 massacre of mostly Hindu tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. But Pakistan openly courted Trump and even advocated the Nobel Peace Prize for him.

Economic tensions followed, with the Trump administration imposing tariffs on India over its discounted purchases of Russian oil that further strained ties between the two countries.

“In India, there is some skepticism about U.S. policy and predictability,” said Malik, who heads the India chapter of The Asia Group advisory firm in the U.S. He said what has happened in the past year between India and the U.S. “can’t be forgotten or erased easily.”

When the Iran war broke out in February, the U.S. stepped up engagement with Pakistan, which positioned itself as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, deepening unease in New Delhi. Trump’s recent, high-profile visit to China has only added to India’s discomfort.

India-U.S. relations are challenging “due to a few structural tensions and Trump only brought them to the fore,” said Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

“New Delhi’s foreign policy, increasingly colored by its domestic politics, has become more black-and-white in the last decade, as evidenced by its deep discomfort with the U.S.’s ties with Pakistan and its moves toward detente with China,” Donthi said.

Experts say these shifts reflect the growing complexity of India-U.S. relations rooted in shared strategic interests, yet increasingly shaped by competing priorities and a shifting geopolitical landscape.

“New Delhi is likely to exercise strategic patience and wait for Trump to leave office,” Donthi said. “India would hope that the bipartisan consensus on India in the U.S. survives his term and that it can start building on that again.”

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Hussain reported from Srinagar, India.

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May 23 (Reuters) – The U.S. and Iran are close to signing a deal involving a 60-day ceasefire extension, during which the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, Iran would be able to freely sell oil and negotiations would be held on curbing Iran’s nuclear program, Axios reported on Saturday, citing a U.S. official. 

According to the Axios report, during the 60-day period, the Strait of Hormuz would be open with no tolls and Iran would agree to clear the mines it deployed in the strait to let ships pass freely.

In exchange, as part of the proposed deal, the U.S. would lift its blockade on Iranian ports and issue some sanctions waivers to allow Iran to sell oil freely, the report added. 

The draft agreement also includes commitments from Iran to never pursue nuclear weapons and to negotiate over a suspension of its uranium enrichment program and the removal of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the Axios report said. 

Iran gave the U.S. through the mediators verbal commitments about the scope of the concessions it’s willing to make on suspending enrichment and giving up the nuclear material, two sources told Axios. 

U.S. would also agree to negotiate over lifting sanctions and unfreezing Iranian funds during the 60-day period, the Axios report said.

The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the report. 

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard and Kim Coghill)

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A nine-story building under construction in a city north of the Philippine capital collapsed early Sunday with 22 workers managing to get out while others remain missing, police said.

The building collapsed before dawn during a thunderstorm in Angeles City in Pampanga province, north of Manila. More than 100 police and other government personnel were scrambling to rescue those believed trapped in the rubble, police Brig. Gen. Jess Mendez said.

Mendez, who was at the scene of the building collapse, said there were no immediate reports of deaths but added that some of the 22 workers who managed to scramble out of the building were injured.

He could not immediately say how many workers were trapped in the collapsed building. But Jay Pelayo, who heads Angeles City’s information office, said at least 30 workers may still be trapped in the rubble, citing a construction foreman who managed to dash out of the building as it tumbled down.

Angeles City used to host one of the largest U.S. Air Force bases outside of the American mainland until it closed in the early 1990s, helping develop Angeles and outlying cities and towns into entertainment and commercial hubs in the main northern Philippine region of Luzon.

The former U.S. Air Force base, now called the Clark Freeport Zone, in Angeles city is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Metro Manila.

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