Light News (LN)

  In what’s been hailed by the European Union’s enlargement chief as ‘Mega Monday’, Ukraine and Moldova are breaking a two-year political deadlock by formally kicking off the first phase of negotiations on joining the bloc. Ukraine and Moldova open the first phase of negotiations on joining the European Union in Luxembourg on Monday, ending a two-year political deadlock driven by the former Hungarian government’s opposition to opening talks with Kyiv. “It is a historic milestone for my country,” Moldova’s deputy Prime Minister, Cristina Gherasimov, told Euronews on Monday. “This is also a strong signal for us that the EU is also getting ready to receive new member states.” Describing the talks as the “biggest step” in Ukraine and Moldova’s accession bid since they were granted candidate status in 2023, the EU’s enlargement chief Marta Kos told reporters on Monday she was “positive” both countries could sustain the momentum and open the remaining five phases – known as “clusters” – ...

  Claim comes as Iranian official floats tolls for strait day after US-Iran announce initial deal to be signed Friday. United States President Donald Trump says “ships are starting to move” through the Strait of Hormuz. The statement on Monday came after both the US and Iran  announced  plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at ending the US-Israeli war with Iran on Friday. While no official text of that agreement has been released, both sides 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. “They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,...

  PM Shehbaz Sharif praises army chief and his ministers for their efforts in securing a tentative deal, likely to be finalised in Geneva later this week. 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 cleare...

  Jared Kushner’s $1.4bn resort has sparked Albania’s biggest protests in years. Is the country’s coast for sale? A remote Albanian island has a new nickname: Kushner Island. Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump and founder of investment firm Affinity Partners, plans to build a $1.4bn luxury resort there. The project has prompted large protests, with crowds chanting, “Albania is not for sale.” Is this the future Albanians want, or a sellout of their land to foreign wealth? Source: Aljazeera 

  A Civil Guard report identifies the initials "P.S." with the prime minister and names Santos Cerdán as the driving force behind efforts to derail the case against Sánchez's brother. A personal diary seized from Leire Díez, a former member of Spain's ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), contains at least four references to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, according to a report by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. The entries, contained in a 2025 notebook, range from meetings and requests for information to comments about the media and internal government affairs. In that report, the UCO said that the initials "P.S." that appear repeatedly in Díez's notebooks refer to Sánchez. That identification comes via an entry in which Díez herself refers to David Sánchez, the prime minister's brother, as "brother of P.S.". Investigators include that excerpt in the context of what they describe as a "possible strateg...

  Fuel shortages and fears rock Crimea as Kyiv attacks the annexed peninsula.  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 p...