Writers including Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan and Russell T Davies have put their names to an open letter – signed by 380 authors and organisations – calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The letter, also signed by Jeanette Winterson, Irvine Welsh, Kate Mosse and Elif Shafak, describes Israel’s military campaign in the territory as...
US President Donald Trump says Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” start negotiating towards a ceasefire and an end to the war after a two-hour phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Trump, who described the conversation as having gone “very well”, also said conditions for peace would need to be negotiated between the two parties....
The White House reportedly negotiated with Hamas without Israel’s participation for the captive release. Hamas released an Israeli American soldier from captivity in Gaza on Monday, seeking to reopen ceasefire negotiations as a gesture of goodwill to President Donald Trump as he visits the Middle East this week. The 21-year-old Israeli military soldier, Edan Alexander,...
Top military officials from India and Pakistan are due to speak later on Monday to discuss finer details of the ceasefire agreed between them on Saturday. The US-brokered ceasefire between the nuclear-armed neighbours appears to have held overnight after nearly four days of intense shelling and aerial incursions from both sides. On Saturday, President Donald...
Hamas says it will release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander as a part of efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza. The 21-year-old soldier is the last living hostage with US nationality being held in the territory. It comes after a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the Palestinian armed group was holding direct...
India and Pakistan have accused each other of “violations” hours after the two nations said they had agreed to a ceasefire following days of cross-border military strikes. After sounds of explosions were heard in Indian-administered Kashmir, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said there had been “repeated violations of the understanding we arrived at”. A short...
Great news. Any time two nuclear-armed countries go to war, the potential for greater disaster dials up to about 11. After several days of war, including artillery and drone exchanges, India and Pakistan have reached a cease-fire brokered by the US: Over the past 48 hours, @VP Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian...
European leaders have called US President Donald Trump to discuss proposals for a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine from Monday while on a visit to Kyiv. The call came after leaders of the so-called “coalition of the willing” held a meeting to discuss advancing peace talks. The leaders of France, Germany, the UK and...
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will travel to Ukraine on Saturday alongside fellow world leaders to put pressure on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in the war. Sir Keir is being joined on the visit by President Emmanuel Macron of France, the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Friedrich Merz, who is making...
Vladimir Putin is leading Russia’s Victory Day commemorations with a parade in Red Square and heightened security after days of Ukrainian strikes targeting the capital. Chinese President Xi Jingping is among more than 20 international leaders who have made the journey to Moscow. A unilateral, three-day ceasefire was announced by Russia to coincide with the...
Yogita Limaye reporting from the Donetsk region BBC Asked about a ceasefire, 26-year-old soldier Max told the BBC “you don’t think about things like that here.” Hours into the ceasefire Russia had called for, we drove into the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine to see what, if any, impact it was having. The Ukrainian military...
DSNS Ukraine Emergency services in the town of Bilopillia in Sumy said one civilian died in an early morning Russian attack Russia’s unilateral, three-day ceasefire has proved to be a farce because of continued attacks across the front line, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, has said. He accused Russia of 734 violations since its truce...
When is a ceasefire a genuine attempt to secure peace? And when is it simply PR? It’s a question that’s been asked a lot lately. Mostly in relation to Russia’s president. Short ceasefires are becoming quite the Kremlin thing. First, Vladimir Putin declared a 30-hour cessation of hostilities over Easter, portraying it as a “humanitarian”...
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin has said the ceasefire will run from the morning of 8 May until the 11 May – which coincides with victory celebrations to mark the end of World War Two. In a statement it said Putin declared the ceasefire...
Quentin Sommerville BBC News BBC/Lee Durant The husband of Mala, 31, pictured here with her four-year-old son, was killed in a military artillery strike during the ceasefire Days after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake shook Myanmar at the end of March, killing at least 3,700 people, the country’s ruling junta agreed to a halt in its devastating...