World

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a 32-hour ceasefire over a two-day period for Orthodox Easter and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv would abide by the measure.

The ceasefire for Orthodox Easter celebrations on Sunday coincides with a pause in U.S.-led efforts to clinch a settlement to the four-year-old conflict amid hostilities in Iran and the broader Middle East.

Putin’s announcement was similar to a 30-hour ceasefire he ordered last year. Each side accused the other of violating it.

The Kremlin said the Easter ceasefire would be in effect from Saturday at 4 p.m. (1300 ⁠GMT) to midnight (2100 GMT) on Sunday evening.

“We proceed on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin announcement said.

The announcement said Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had issued an order to Russia’s top commander, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, “to stop for this period military action in all directions”.

“Troops are to be ready to eliminate all possible provocations by the enemy as well as any aggressive actions.”

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had repeatedly proposed a halt to fighting for Orthodox Easter.

“Ukraine has repeatedly stated that we are ready for reciprocal steps. We proposed a ceasefire during the Easter holiday this year and will act accordingly,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.

“People need an Easter without threats and a real ⁠move towards peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to attacks even after Easter.”

NO RESUMPTION OF THREE-WAY TALKS

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS that Putin’s ceasefire proposal had not been discussed in advance with the United States. Nor was it linked to any notion of resuming three-way talks on a settlement.

Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev is, meanwhile, now in the U.S. and ⁠is meeting members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for discussions on a peace deal and U.S.-Russia economic cooperation, sources with knowledge of the visit told Reuters.

According to the calendar of the Orthodox faith, dominant in both Russia and Ukraine, Easter falls this year on ⁠April 12.

Zelenskiy had for more than a week proposed an Easter ceasefire and, citing air attacks on Ukrainian cities, said Moscow had chosen to respond instead with drones. Russia had previously reacted coolly to Zelenskiy’s proposal, saying it preferred to ⁠pursue a long-term settlement.

The Ukrainian president has proposed a halt to fighting on a number of occasions, but has been turned down by Moscow.

For Easter, he called for each side to stop targeting the other’s energy infrastructure, saying he made the offer through the United States.

Source: Reuters

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is already web-slinging its way to history. The Sony Pictures trailer, released on Wednesday morning, has become the biggest trailer of all time with 718.6 million views in 24 hours.

The Spidey trailer broke the previous record held by “Deadpool and Wolverine,” which had 365 million views. 

In just eight hours, the “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” trailer had 373 million views — already breaking the record by “Deadpool 3,” which dropped during the 2024 Super Bowl. Coincidentally, “Deadpool 3” had jumped the 2021 “Spider-Man: No Way Home” trailer, which had 355.5 million views in 24 hours, to put itself in the record books.

Not only does “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” have the biggest movie trailer in history, it’s the biggest trailer, period. 

It surpasses last year’s trailer for the hotly anticipated video game “Grand Theft Auto VI,” which pulled in 475 million views in 24 hours to become the biggest video trailer ever — until now. 

To build excitement for the “Brand New Day” trailer, Sony released tiny snippets one day in advance showing moments from the full video.

“Brand New Day” is the first time Tom Holland has suited up as Spidey since “No Way Home,” which united past wall-crawlers Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield for a universe-crossing blockbuster. “No Way Home” went on to gross $1.9 billion at the global box office.

“Four years have passed since the events of ‘No Way Home,’ and Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves,” the logline for “Brand New Day” teases. 

“Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he’s devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced.”

The cast includes Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo. It’s directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Producers include Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad and Rachel O’Connor, plus executive producers Louis D’Esposito and David Cain.

Source: Variety

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday its military ships and aircraft will remain around Iran and threatened that the U.S. will start “shooting” again unless Tehran fully complies with the deal reached with Washington.

“All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry ... will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT ⁠reached is fully complied with,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.,” the president added.

Iran had said earlier on Wednesday that it would be “unreasonable” to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace deal with the United States after Israel pounded ⁠Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people.

The two sides appeared to be far apart on Iran’s nuclear program, with Trump saying Iran had agreed to stop enriching ⁠uranium, and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammed Bager Qalibaf saying it was allowed to continue enriching uranium under the terms of the ceasefire.

“It was ⁠agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, ⁠the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE,” Trump added in his late Wednesday’s Truth Social post.

Source: Reuters

Two people have been killed in Oman after drones came down in the Sohar province, according to Oman’s state news agency, as Gulf nations remain caught in the crosshairs of the war the United States and Israel launched on Iran, sparking Tehran’s retaliation across the region.

The agency, quoting a security source, said on Friday morning that one of the drones hit the al-Awahi Industrial Area, killing two foreign nationals and injuring others.

The other one fell in an open area with no injuries recorded, the agency also said, adding that the authorities were investigating the incident.

On Wednesday, Oman’s state media reported that drones struck fuel tanks in the country’s Salalah port. Tehran denied a role in that attack.

Oman’s state news agency, quoting an energy ministry official, said that there had been no disruption to the continuity of oil supplies or petroleum derivatives in the country.

Private maritime security company Vanguard Tech reported the suspension of the port’s operations after the attack on its southern section.

Multiple attacks on Saudi Arabia

In the meantime, Saudi forces intercepted a drone on Friday targeting Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, which houses foreign embassies, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday.

The “hostile drone” was downed “during an attempt to approach the Diplomatic Quarter”, the ministry posted on X.

Three more drones were intercepted elsewhere in Saudi Arabia at about the same time, the ministry said.

A ministry spokesperson said air defences had shot down eight more drones in the central and eastern regions of the country, as well as the al-Kharj governorate and west of the capital, Riyadh.

Earlier, the ministry reported 14 drones were intercepted and destroyed in waves of attempted attacks.

In Dubai, debris fell on the facade of a building in the city centre on Friday morning after an attack was intercepted by the air defences of the United Arab Emirates, according to the Dubai media office, which reported no injuries.

The region has been ignited by war since Israel and the US launched joint attacks on Iran on February 28, killing about 1,300 people and injuring more than 10,000, according to the Iranian authorities.

Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and the Gulf countries hosting US military assets since then.

Lebanon has suffered greatly under relentless Israeli bombardment, which has killed nearly 700 people. 

(Al Jazeera)

Oil prices rose on Thursday on investors’ concerns supply from the key Middle East producing region may not fully resume amid doubts the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran will hold and as the crucial Strait of Hormuz remains restricted.

Brent crude futures were up $2.6, or 2.74 per cent, at $97.35 a barrel at 0048 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $3.02, or 3.2 per cent, to $97.43 a barrel.

Both benchmark prices fell below $100 per barrel in the previous trading session, with WTI recording its biggest decline since April 2020 on expectations the ceasefire ending the fighting between the U.S. and Israel against Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The waterway connects supply from Gulf producers such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar to global markets and typically carries about 20 per cent of oil supply.

Still, questions about the viability of the ceasefire remain as Israel continued to attack Lebanon on Wednesday, causing Iran to suggest it would be “unreasonable” to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace deal.

Shippers on Wednesday also said they needed more clarity on the terms of the ceasefire before resuming transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has issued maps to guide ships around mines in the waterway and designated safe paths for passage in coordination with the country’s Revolutionary Guards, Iranian media reported.

“Transit through the Strait of Hormuz is not suddenly risk-free. It remains at Iran’s discretion,” analysts at Standard Chartered said in a note.

“Logistic disconnects, security fears, elevated insurance premiums and operational constraints mean that very little additional energy is likely to be supplied via the Strait of Hormuz in the next two weeks.”

Regional oil facilities also remain under threat, with Iran striking sites in nearby countries after the ceasefire, including a pipeline in Saudi Arabia that has been used to bypass the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, according to an oil industry source.

Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE also reported missile and drone strikes.

There are doubts the ceasefire can hold, Haitong Futures said in a note, as Israel’s strikes on Lebanon’s Hezbollah have emerged as a point of contention, while attacks on energy facilities across the Middle East have yet to stop, and conflicting statements persist over the Strait of Hormuz.

Source: Reuters

G7 nations have said they are ready to take "necessary measures" to support the global supply of energy after the US-Israel war with Iran sent oil prices surging.

However, a meeting of G7 finance ministers and the International Energy Agency (IEA) ended without an agreement to release strategic crude reserves.

The oil price reached nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, over fears of a lengthy disruption to supplies, before falling back sharply after President Trump raised hopes the war would soon end.

At the virtual meeting, the option of releasing oil from stockpiles was one of several discussed as Fatih Birol, head of the IEA, said global oil markets "have deteriorated in recent days".

|BBC

The four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission cruised on Monday to the deepest point in space reached by any human, following the tug of lunar gravitational force en route to a rare crewed flyby over the shadowed far side of the moon.

As the climactic six-hour flyby of Earth’s only natural satellite got underway, some two dozen lunar scientists packed a room adjacent to mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to record the astronauts’ first observations of the moon’s surface in real time.

The Artemis II crew, riding in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, began their sixth day of spaceflight as they awoke at around 10:50 a.m. ET (1450 GMT) to a pre-recorded message from the late NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who flew aboard the Cold War-era Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 moon missions.

‘‘Welcome to my old neighborhood,’‘ said Lovell, who died last year at age 97. 

‘‘It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view... good luck and Godspeed."

The four ⁠Artemis astronauts set a new spaceflight record on Monday as they exceeded the maximum 248,000-mile (400,000 km) distance from Earth reached in 1970 by Apollo 13 after a nearly catastrophic spacecraft malfunction cut short that mission, forcing Lovell and his two crewmates to use the moon’s gravity to help return them safely to Earth.

Later on Monday, the Artemis crew of U.S. astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were due to reach their own farthest distance from Earth - 252,755 miles, some 4,117 miles beyond the record held by the Apollo 13 crew for nearly 56 years.

NAMING CRATERS

Along the way, the Artemis crew members spent some time assigning provisional new names to lunar features that previously lacked official designations.

In a radio message to mission control in Houston, Hansen suggested one crater be dubbed Integrity, after the name given to the crew’s Orion capsule, and that another crater sometimes visible from Earth on the cusp between the far and near sides of the moon be named in honor of Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.

‘‘A number of years ago we started this journey, our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,’‘ Hansen said of the mission commander’s late spouse, his voice choking with emotion as he described the position of her lunar namesake.
 
‘‘It’s a bright spot on the ⁠Moon, and we would like to call that Carroll."

As the Orion sailed around the moon’s far side, the crew was expected witness its surface from as close as roughly 4,000 miles above its darkened surface as it eclipsed what would appear to be a basketball-sized Earth in the distant background.

Because the moon rotates at the same speed as it revolves around the Earth, its far side always faces away from our planet, so that few human beings - only members of the Apollo crews who orbited the moon during their missions - have ever gazed directly on its surface.

The milestone marked a major high point of the nearly 10-day Artemis II mission, the first crewed test flight of NASA’s Artemis program, successor to NASA’s 1960s-1970s Apollo ⁠project, and the world’s first voyage to send humans in the vicinity of the moon in more than half a century.

RARE DETAILED PHOTOS

The planned multibillion-dollar series of Artemis missions aims to return astronauts to the moon’s surface by 2028, ahead of China, and establish a long-term U.S. presence there over the next decade, building a moon base that would serve as a proving ground for potential future missions to Mars.

The last time astronauts walked on the moon - a feat so far achieved only ⁠by the United States - was the final Apollo mission in 1972.

Monday’s lunar flyby plunged the crew into darkness and a brief communications blackout as the moon blocked them from NASA’s Deep Space Network, a global array of massive radio communications antennas the agency has been using to talk to the crew.

For the flyby, the astronauts were equipped with professional cameras to take 
detailed photos of the moon through Orion’s window, showing a rare and scientifically ⁠valuable vantage point of sunlight filtering around its edges.

The crew will also have the chance to photograph a rare moment in which their home planet, dwarfed by their record-breaking distance in space, will set and rise with the lunar horizon as they swing around, presenting a celestial remix of the moonrise typically seen from Earth.

Source: Reuters

President Donald Trump announced on his proprietary social media platform Tuesday that the U.S. military could help shipping vessels travel through an embattled sea passage as the war against Iran rages on.

In a Truth Social post, Trump offered the possibility of naval assistance and called upon the United States Development Finance Corporation to provide risk insurance that would guarantee the financial security of maritime trade operating near the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

“If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible,” Trump said.

A high-ranking member of Iran’s primary military branch, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that any vessels travelling through the 100-mile-long sea passage would be targeted and met with lethal force, according to Iranian media.

The Strait of Hormuz is a pivotal choke point for oil transit located between Oman and Iran. In 2022, 21 million barrels of oil per day were transported through the strait, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“The strait is closed, and whoever wants to cross, our heroes in the navy of the IRGC and army will set those ships on fire,” said Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the Revolutionary Guard’s commander-in-chief.

After the U.S. military struck Iran on Feb. 28, maritime traffic in the strait dropped 70%, according to MarineTraffic, a ship tracking service. As tankers became stranded in the Persian Gulf, gas prices jumped an average of 11 cents Tuesday in the U.S., according to the AAA motor club.

 (Source:newswire.lk)

Dubai-based airline Emirates’ website said on Wednesday that Iranian nationals were not allowed to enter or ⁠transit the United Arab Emirates.

The website of another carrier, Flydubai, said Iranian nationals holding a UAE “Golden ⁠Visa” were exempt and permitted to enter and ⁠transit the country.

The restrictions come amid ⁠heightened tensions between Iran ⁠and Gulf states.

Source: Reuters

A tram derailed Friday and slammed into a building in the heart of Milan, killing two people and injuring more than two-dozen others, officials said.

The incident, along the central Vittorio Veneto avenue, came as the Italian business capital is hosting its seasonal fashion shows and is in the interim between hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games.

The No. 9 tram runs through the heart of Italy’s financial capital. It was supposed to have continued straight along Vittorio Veneto and was going at a high speed. But it suddenly swerved at a switch track that is used by another tram line and went off its usual course, according to video of the crash broadcast by Sky TG24.

The video shows the tram nearly flipping onto its side as it takes the curve before slamming to a stop in a building.

Milan Mayor Beppe Sala suggested human error was to blame, saying the driver had apparently failed to switch the tracks to keep the tram going straight. Sala described the driver as a seasoned employee who had only been on his shift for an hour. But he said he had skipped a prior stop before the crash occurred, and would be questioned from the hospital where he was being treated for his injuries.

Sala confirmed two people had been killed — one passenger on the tram and one on the street. He said none of the other injured was in life-threatening condition.

Dozens of ambulances, fire trucks and police cars responded to the crash, with crews escorting passengers in thermal blankets away from the scene.

ATM, the Milan public transport company, said it was cooperating with prosecutors “to precisely establish the cause and dynamic of the incident.”

Source: AP

The Oscars will leave Hollywood after celebrating their centenary, organizers said Thursday, as they announced a long-term deal to hold the gala in downtown Los Angeles.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the ceremony, the most important night of the year for the global film industry, would leave the Dolby Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after 2028.

The 2029 edition will instead be held at The Peacock Theater, part of the vast LA LIVE complex, next to the Crypto.com Arena, home to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“For the 101st Oscars and beyond, the Academy looks forward to closely collaborating with (owners) AEG to make LA LIVE the perfect backdrop for our global celebration of cinema, both for our live in-theater audience and for film fans around the world,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Lynette Howell Taylor said.

Source: AP

All seven people on board an air ambulance were killed when the aircraft crashed near Simaria in Jharkhand’s Chatra district on Monday evening. The flight was en route from Ranchi to Delhi when the accident occurred, a top state government official said.

“All seven on board the air ambulance were killed in the crash. The plane was on the way to Delhi from Ranchi,” Chatra Deputy Commissioner Keerthishree G told news agency PTI.

The aircraft, operated by Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd, took off from Ranchi airport at 7:11 pm. According to Chatra Deputy Commissioner Keerthishree G, the plane went missing around 7:30 pm and later crashed in the Bariatu Panchayat area of Simaria, a densely forested region.

Victims Identified

Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Shubham Khandelwal confirmed to PTI that all seven bodies had been recovered. The victims were identified as:

• Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat
• Captain Savrajdeep Singh
• Sanjay Kumar
• Dr Vikas Kumar Gupta
• Sachin Kumar Mishra
• Archana Devi
• Dhuru Kumar

Patient Was Being Shifted For Better Treatment

According to Anant Sinha, CEO of Devkamal Hospital in Ranchi, the air ambulance had been arranged for Sanjay Kumar (41), a resident of Latehar district. He had been admitted on February 16 with 65% burn injuries and was under treatment at the hospital.

A family member of the patient said they had chosen an air ambulance because his condition was too serious for a road journey. Vijay Kumar, a relative, said that the doctor had warned them that the patient might not survive a trip by road.

“We tried to take him (the patient) by road, but the doctor said we couldn’t. He told us the patient might collapse on the way,” Vijay Kumar told reporters. “The doctor said that if we could arrange an air ambulance, then we could take him. So we decided to take him by air ambulance.”

“Later, we saw on the news that the plane had crashed,” he added.

Severe Weather Reported At The Time Of Crash

Local residents reported that at the time of the crash, the area was experiencing strong winds, heavy rain, lightning, and loud thunder. They said the plane crashed with a loud sound during the stormy weather.

Ranchi airport director Vinod Kumar said the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control roughly 20 minutes after takeoff. While bad weather might have contributed to the crash, he emphasized that the exact cause will be known only after a full investigation.

“Inclement weather could be a reason behind the crash, but the actual cause will be ascertained only after a probe,” he told PTI.

A Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) statement confirmed that the Redbird Airways Beechcraft C90 aircraft (VT-AJV), operating a medical evacuation flight, lost communication and radar contact with Kolkata after 7:34 pm, around 100 nautical miles southeast of Varanasi.

“On 23.02.2026 Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd Beechcraft C90 aircraft VT-AJV operating medical evacuation (Air Ambulance) flight on sector Ranchi-Delhi crashed in Kasaria Panchayat of Chatra district, in Jharkhand. There were seven people on board, including two crew members. The aircraft was airborne from Ranchi at 19:11 IST. After establishing contact with Kolkata at 19:34 IST, aircraft lost communication and RADAR contact with Kolkata at approximately 100 NM South-East of Varanasi,” DGCA said.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) team will arrive in Chatra at 1:00 pm to investigate the plane crash. The black box is expected to reveal the cause of the incident. All the bodies of the victims have been recovered and sent to hospital for post-mortem.

Redbird Airways, owned by Akshay Yadav, was established in 2018 and received its permit to serve non-scheduled flights in 2019, according to its website. It has six planes in the fleet, including the one which crashed on Monday evening, as per the DGCA website.

 (Source:newswire.lk)