Headline
Putin Faces Calls For Peace At BRICS Summit

World leaders called for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine at the BRICS summit in Russia on Wednesday, as President Vladimir Putin told them he welcomed offers to mediate in the Ukraine conflict.
The Russian leader is casting the gathering as a sign that Western attempts to isolate Moscow have failed, but faced direct calls to end the Ukraine conflict from some of his closest and most important partners.
The meeting of around 20 world leaders in the central city of Kazan is the largest diplomatic forum held in Russia since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Starting in 2009 with four members — Brazil, Russia, India and China — BRICS has expanded to include other emerging nations such as South Africa, Egypt and Iran.
In a joint statement, the group said it was “deeply concerned about ongoing conflicts and instability in the Middle East and North African region.”
It also criticised Israeli attacks on UN staff in southern Lebanon and urged that Lebanon’s “territorial integrity” be “preserved.”
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At a plenary session earlier on Wednesday, leaders had lined up to call for peace in both the Middle East and Ukraine.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian urged BRICS members to “use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping Xi repeated his call for a ceasefire, saying: “We need to… stop the killing and work tirelessly for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”
And Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also called for escalation in both the Middle East and Ukraine to be avoided.
“As we face two wars that have the potential to become global, it is essential to restore our ability to work together toward common goals,” he said in an address to the summit via video conference.
– Mediation offers –
The European Union on Wednesday urged BRICS members to use to forum to pressure Putin to “immediately” halt his offensive on Ukraine.
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In private bilateral talks, Putin welcomed offers by several BRICS leaders to mediate in Ukraine, even as he told them his forces were advancing on the battlefield, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters Putin had also used the meetings to tout “the very positive dynamics on the front for the Russian armed forces”.
Russian troops have been slowly advancing in eastern Ukraine for much of 2024, though neither side has been able to make a decisive breakthrough.
Xi, a key Putin ally, told the summit there must be “no escalation of fighting” in Ukraine.
“We must adhere to the three principles of ‘no spillover from the battlefield, no escalation of fighting and no adding oil to the fire by relevant parties’, so as to ease the situation as soon as possible,” Xi said.
Without referring to any specific conflict, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also issued a call for peace.
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“We support dialogue and diplomacy, not war,” he said.
Brazil’s Lula said it was “crucial” to open peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
– Multipolar order –
Xi and Modi have previously touted their own peace initiatives for Ukraine, though there has appeared to be little progress.
Putin has demanded Ukraine effectively capitulate by ceding more territory in its east and south as a precondition to ceasefire talks.
Kyiv has ruled out giving up land in exchange for peace and currently occupies part of Russian territory following a brazen cross-border summer offensive.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also casting himself as a possible peacemaker, will hold talks with Putin later on Wednesday, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will meet the Kremlin leader a day later.
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Moscow sees the BRICS platform as an alternative to Western-led international organisations like the G7.
In opening remarks to the summit, Putin said the process of “forming a multipolar world order is underway, a dynamic and irreversible process.”
Xi and Modi also used the summit to hold their first formal meeting in five years, days after the neighbouring countries reached a deal on their contested border. .
Xi said it was their “fundamental interests” that the two sides “strengthen communication and cooperation”.
The BRICS group also called for the Global South to be given a bigger role on the world stage and more deeply integrated into international “decision-making” platforms.
AFP
Headline
Afghanistan’s Taliban Release US Citizen

Afghanistan’s Taliban government released an American citizen from detention on Sunday, a week after freeing an elderly British couple.
In a statement, the ministry identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington’s special envoy on hostages.
Boehler made a rare visit to Kabul earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Taliban government.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan released an American citizen named Amir Amiri from prison today,” the Foreign Ministry on X, using the official name for the government.
“The Afghan government does not view the issues of citizens from a political angle and makes it clear that ways can be found to resolve issues through diplomacy.”
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Little is known about Amiri’s case, as it has not been widely reported.
An official with knowledge of the release said Amiri, who is 36, “had been detained in Afghanistan since December 2024”.
The official added that Amiri would stop briefly in Doha, Qatar for medical checks before continuing back to the United States.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amiri, said he had been “wrongfully detained” in Afghanistan, and thanked Qatar for helping to get him freed.
President Donald Trump “has made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home,” Rubio wrote on X.
In January two Americans were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the United States.
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Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, was freed after more than two years in detention during a March visit to Kabul by Boehler.
At least one other US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is being held in Afghanistan. The United States is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The Taliban authorities deny any involvement in his 2022 disappearance.
Just a week ago, Britons Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were released from a Kabul prison after almost eight months in detention. The Taliban authorities did not say why they were detained.
The couple was arrested in February and first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, UN experts have said.
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The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programmes for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens.
All the releases have been mediated by Qatar.
Both the US and the UK, like many other Western nations, warn against all travel to Afghanistan.
Russia is the only country to have officially recognised the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and been accused of sweeping human rights violations.
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the group returned to power in August 2021, when most embassies withdrew their diplomatic presence.
The Taliban government says it wants to have good relations with other countries, notably the United States, despite the 20-year war against US-led forces.
Headline
One Dead, Several Injured After US Shooting, Fire At Mormon Church

One person was killed and several others injured Sunday after a shooter targeted a Mormon church in the US state of Michigan, where the building was also set on fire, authorities said.
The suspect, a 40-year-old man from a nearby town, was shot dead by law enforcement after the attack, police said, without specifying any possible motive.
President Donald Trump called the shooting “horrendous” and said on his Truth Social platform it “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
Images from the scene showed emergency services escorting people on stretchers and a large plume of dark smoke at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township.
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Local police chief William Renye told reporters the suspect drove his vehicle through the front doors of the church and then began firing at people inside with an assault rifle.
He said the service was active with “hundreds of people within the church.”
Authorities believe the gunman also deliberately set fire to the church before he was killed by responding police officers, Renye said.
Ten gunshot victims were transported to hospital, including one who has died, the official said.
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He added that the fire had been extinguished but that “we do believe that we will find additional victims once we have that scene secure.”
A woman who lives near the church told AFP: “My husband heard people screaming, one lady yelling for help.”
FBI agents are on the scene to assist the investigation, chief Kash Patel said on X.
“Violence in a place of worship is a cowardly and criminal act. Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy,” he wrote.
Attorney General Pam Bondi also said she had been briefed on the incident.
Headline
Head Of Mormon Church Is Dead

Russell Nelson, who headed the Mormon church since 2018, died on Saturday night at age 101, the church announced.
“With sorrow we announce that Russell M. Nelson, beloved President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away peacefully… at his home in Salt Lake City,” it said in a statement, using the church’s official name.
The former heart surgeon was “the oldest president in the history of the Church,” the statement added, without specifying a cause of death.
Utah Republican senator Mike Lee lauded Nelson as a “bold, visionary leader prepared by God to testify of Jesus Christ in the very times in which we now live.”
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Nelson became the 17th president of the Church in January 2018 at age 93, succeeding Thomas Monson.
Before becoming president, Nelson successfully pushed for the church to label same-sex married couples as “apostates” and bar their children under the age of 18 from religious rites, including baptisms — though that policy was scrapped after he took on the role.
He also broke with his predecessors and cautioned against using shorthands “LDS” or “Mormons” to refer to the church.
Nelson’s successor will be chosen after his funeral by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who like the church’s president are considered prophets by believers.
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The religious leader is survived by his wife, eight of his children, 57 grandchildren and more than 167 great-grandchildren, according to the church.
Founded in 1830, the Mormon church considers itself a Christian body, but bases its doctrines on the Book of Mormon, a text purporting to contain a fuller version of the words of Jesus Christ than that recorded in the Bible.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims a total membership of more than 17.5 million people.
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