US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein victims for her department’s widely criticised handling of sensitive documents. Bondi accused the lawmaker of dragging her “into the gutter” for the sake of “theatrics.”
Russia has said it will abide by limits on its nuclear weapons as set out in a lapsed arms control treaty with the United States, as long as Washington continues to do the same.
The New START agreement expired earlier this month, leaving the world’s two biggest nuclear-armed powers with no binding constraints on their strategic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century and sparking fears of a new global arms race.
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In an address to parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow was in no rush to start developing and deploying more weapons – backtracking on comments made by his ministry last week that said Russia considered itself no longer bound by the treaty’s terms.
“We proceed from the fact that this moratorium, which was announced by our president, remains in effect, but only while the United States does not exceed the outlined limits,” said Lavrov.
“We have reason to believe that the United States is in no hurry to abandon these limits and that they will be observed for the foreseeable future,” he said, without explaining the basis for that assumption.
US President Donald Trump rejected an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to voluntarily abide by the limits set out in New START for another year, saying he wanted a “new, improved and modernised” treaty rather than an extension of the old one.
Russia has also indicated it wants to strike a new arms control agreement.
Washington is pushing for China to be included in the talks, pointing to its growing nuclear arsenal.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than that of any other country by about 100 new warheads a year since 2023.
However, Beijing refuses to negotiate with the US and Russia because it says it has only a fraction of their warhead numbers – an estimated 600, compared with about 4,000 each for Russia and the US.
As the treaty expired, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that China would not be joining the bilateral arms-reduction talks.
Moscow says if China is brought into a new deal, then so too should the US’s nuclear allies, the United Kingdom and France, which have 290 and 225 warheads, respectively.
New START, first signed in Prague in 2010 by the then-presidents of the US and Russia, Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, limited each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads – a reduction of nearly 30 percent from the previous limit set in 2002.
Deployed weapons or warheads are those in active service and available for rapid use as opposed to those in storage or awaiting dismantlement.
It also allowed each side to conduct on-site inspections of the other’s nuclear arsenal, although these were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not resumed since.
Russia in 2023 rejected inspections of its nuclear sites under the treaty, as tensions rose with the US over its nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
Who: India vs Namibia
What: ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 – Group A
When: Thursday, February 12 at 7pm (13:30 GMT)
Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi, India
How to follow and stream: Al Jazeera’s live text and photo stream begins at 10:30 GMT
Namibia will look to make the most of an illness-and-injury-plagued Indian side when they meet the defending champions in their Group A match on Thursday.
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India are likely to take the field without their swashbuckling opener Abhishek Sharma after he was hospitalised with an upset stomach on Tuesday.
While Sharma was discharged on the eve of the match, his presence in the playing XI is doubtful.
The world’s top-ranked T20I batter struggled in India’s opening match against the United States.
“He has been discharged today, and he is doing well,” Indian batter Tilak Varma told reporters.
“We have got one more day for the game. Hopefully, we decide by tomorrow on how he feels, and we go with it.”
In better news for the world champions, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is expected to return after he missed the opener due to a fever.
Namibia, meanwhile, will be looking to move past their heavy loss against the Netherlands on Tuesday and register a shock win over the two-time world champions.
The African team’s coach, Craig Williams, admitted his side faces a stiff challenge against India, but they would like to pose a challenge against the pre-tournament favourites.
“Playing India in India – it’s going to be a great game for us and the spectacle is going to be fantastic for everyone back home as well,” Williams said before the match.
“As a professional team, we want to put on a good show, and hopefully, we’re going to stick to our game plan, and then we’ll see what happens at the end of the day.”
Williams said the key to Namibia’s chances will be a strong batting performance at the top of the order.
“We need someone in our top four to bat for a prolonged period of time, and then you need partnerships,” the former cricketer said.
“Playing against India won’t be easier, but if we can stick to our game plan, and take one ball at a time, hopefully, the result will then go our way.”
India are on an eight-game unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup, carrying on from their title-winning campaign in 2024.
They lost one of their five T20Is against New Zealand last month.
Last five matches (most recent first): W W L W W
One of the biggest results in Namibian cricket history came in October, when they beat 2024 finalists South Africa by four wickets.
They have not been lucky enough to play international fixtures regularly, but can pose a challenge if one of their key players makes an impact.
Last five matches (most recent first): L W L W W
India’s squad has been hit by a range of illnesses and injuries, but Suryakumar Yadav’s team have plenty of power on the bench to grab another win.
Bumrah could return to the XI, replacing his stand-in Mohammed Siraj, and Sanju Samson could take Sharma’s place at the top of the order.
Predicted XI: Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy
Namibia could field the same XI that lost to the Netherlands, hoping that the result goes the other way this time.
Predicted XI: Louren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (captain), JJ Smit, Zane Green (wicketkeeper), Dylan Leicher, Willem Myburgh, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, Max Heingo
Iran is unwilling to compromise on its missile capabilities, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has said, indicating a potential sticking point in negotiations with the United States.
Ali Shamkhani made the statement on Wednesday during an event marking the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. “The Islamic Republic’s missile capabilities are non-negotiable,” he was quoted by state media as saying.
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His remarks follow a round of mediated talks between the US and Iranian officials last week in Oman that failed to yield a breakthrough. Iran wants the talks to focus exclusively on nuclear issues, while the US has pushed to also address Iran’s ballistic missile programme and regional alliances.
“The Iranians are saying we are ready to talk nuclear, but we are not ready to talk ballistics,” said Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tehran, Iran. “For the United States, this is a big issue.”
Many Iranians, still marked by memories of last June’s 12-day war with Israel that killed some 610 people in the country, fear the prospect of renewed conflict. “Many here are quite concerned this could lead to something unfavourable,” said Hashem.
Washington and Tehran are weighing another round of talks, though no date has been announced.
US President Donald Trump has sent mixed signals on the negotiations. While saying the first round was “very good”, he also threatened military action if Iran does not meet US demands.
“Either we will make a deal, or we will have to do something very tough like last time,” Trump told US news site Axios on Tuesday.
Trump also floated the idea of sending a second aircraft carrier towards Iran, a menacing signal after the US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities in June.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that his country is ready to prove the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme, but would not “not yield to excessive demands”.
“Our Iran will not yield in the face of aggression, but we are continuing dialogue with all our strength with neighbouring countries in order to establish peace and tranquillity in the region,” Pezeshkian said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Ali Larijani, another senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, visited Qatar and met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to discuss the status of US talks.
That discussion on Wednesday was positive, Larijani told Al Jazeera, adding that Iran remains in contact with “all sides” about a possible second round of US talks.
The Qatari emir also spoke by phone with Trump ahead of the US president’s meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli premier is expected to press Trump to take a hardline stance in negotiations with Iran, including demanding concessions on Tehran’s military arsenal, including ballistic missiles, and support for regional groups like Hezbollah.
Hassan Ahmadian, an associate professor at the University of Tehran, said Iran views its ballistic missile programme as a red line because it’s critical to its defence.
In post-genocide Rwanda, fragile encounters see survivors and perpetrators face the past to reopen paths to coexistence.
In 1994, Rwanda was devastated when Hutu leaders orchestrated a systematic genocide against the Tutsi population – violence rooted in decades of engineered ethnic division and political manipulation designed to fracture the country. In the span of 100 days, nearly a million lives were taken, leaving communities destroyed and neighbours turned into enemies.
Decades later, the nation continues the difficult task of rebuilding trust. This episode follows Karenzi, a former perpetrator who was allowed to return to his village through the Gacaca courts, Rwanda’s traditional community tribunals. Under this system, reintegration depended not on serving long prison terms, but on openly confessing crimes, acknowledging the truth and seeking forgiveness from survivors. Karenzi’s path forces him to confront the weight of his actions and to engage directly with those who carry the memory of what he did.
As Karenzi and Murakatete begin to speak to each other, the episode witnesses how truth-telling, accountability, and the willingness to listen create a space for mutual healing, in the spirit of Mvura Nkuvure: “I heal you, you heal me.” Through their shared effort, the film explores how Rwanda’s reconciliation process continues to evolve, shaped by the people who dare to face one another after unimaginable loss.
Beirut, Lebanon – The Lebanese and Syrian governments have reached a deal to repatriate about 300 Syrian inmates in Lebanese prisons back to their home country in a move that could pave the way for better relations between the two neighbours.
The issue of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon has been a priority for Damascus since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024. Relations between the two countries have long been marked by what many Lebanese describe as nearly 30 years of occupation and a tutelage rule by Syria over Lebanon, which ended when Syria withdrew its troops in 2005.
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About 2,400 Syrian prisoners are currently in Lebanese prisons. Some are held on “terrorism” charges while others are held for links to attacks against the Lebanese army. But most have never been tried despite having spent years in jail, largely due to a myriad of issues, including political gridlock, judicial strikes and general political indifference.
And while the deal reached on Friday may signal the beginning of a new relationship between Syria and Lebanon – one built on mutual respect rather than Syria’s direct or indirect control of the smaller state on its western border – it did not come about without any public controversy.
In Syrian eyes, many of the prisoners are being held for political rather than judicial reasons. The government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa believes they are in prison mostly due to the influence of the former al-Assad regime and its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.
But for many Lebanese, anyone accused of attacks against the Lebanese armed forces should not be released.
“Lebanon has long insisted that anyone Syrian or otherwise accused of committing serious crimes against the Lebanese army should not be extradited,” David Wood, the senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “That has been one key obstacle to resolving this prisoner agreement up until now.”
Lebanese-Syrian relations have long been complex. Under Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and later his son Bashar, Syrian forces controlled Lebanon from 1976 to 2005.
Even after Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon, Syria maintained influence over Lebanon via its allies there, including the political and military group Hezbollah.
When the 2011 Syrian uprising began and was subsequently repressed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Syria’s border with Lebanon soon became a hotspot for the transportation of people – both fighters and refugees – weapons and drugs.
In Lebanon, the Syrian war had a strong impact. It spilled over into clashes in the northern city of Tripoli; the Battle of Abra, which involved firebrand anti-Assad sheikh Ahmad al-Assir and Lebanese-Palestinian pop star Fadel Shaker; battles with Hezbollah and the Lebanese army on one side and ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda-aligned groups on the other; and attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
In the intervening years, hundreds of Syrians were arrested by Lebanese authorities and held in Lebanon’s overcrowded prisons.
When the al-Assad regime fell, the new Syrian government quickly looked to reframe the relationship with Lebanon, expressing an interest in building ties based on mutual respect and interests.
Among Damascus’s priorities were delineating their shared border and economic and security cooperation. But it also prioritised the repatriation of Syrians in Lebanese prisons.
“The allegation from Damascus is that in many cases the reason for [imprisonment] is political and specifically due to perceived ties between the inmates and groups that were opposed to the former regime of Bashar al-Assad,” Wood said. In its view, “it was actually Assad’s Lebanese allies who conspired to make sure that these people were imprisoned in Lebanon.”
By that logic, the fall of al-Assad and the weakening of Hezbollah after Israel’s 2024 war on Lebanon meant that these prisoners should be released.
Some Lebanese disagree and see the issue as more of a grey area. Even if the Syrian prisoners in question had fought Hezbollah, it had been at a time when the Shia group had been coordinating with the Lebanese army – and, for many Lebanese, fighting the army is a red line.
On Friday, the agreement was signed with a number of Lebanese ministers present, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri and the two countries’ justice ministers.
“This is a very important first step on the road of a comprehensive treatment regarding Syrian prisoners in Lebanese prisons,” Mitri said to reporters on Friday.
Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais said: “This step will boost existing confidence, and we hope that relations will progress more.”
The agreement reportedly stipulates that over the next three months, about 300 prisoners will be repatriated to Syria and those serving time for serious crimes, such as rape or murder for example, must have served 10 or more years of their sentences in Lebanese prisons to be eligible for repatriation.
Lebanese prisoners, such as al-Assir, are not included in the deal.
But other issues remain. Among them are Lebanon’s backlogged judicial system and issues related to Lebanese inmates in Syrian prisons.
Only about 750 Syrian prisoners out of the 2,400 have been convicted. That means roughly 65 percent of prisoners are not eligible for repatriation yet.
Fadel Abdulghany of the Syrian Network for Human Rights described this as a “two-track” problem. On his personal website, Abdulghany noted that the transfer of prisoners convicted with final sentences can be carried out with a “swift step”.
However, for those who have yet to be convicted, the issue is not as straightforward. A mechanism for pretrial detention has not yet been agreed by the respective authorities.
“This is not merely a Syrian issue but one that touches the very structure of the Lebanese criminal justice system,” Abdulghany wrote. “Therefore, transferring convicts will not resolve the problem, because the root cause is the slow pace of procedures in Lebanon and the accumulation of detainees held without trial, along with the ensuing issues concerning the legality and continuation of their detention.”
He warned that such detainees could be used as political bargaining chips by Hezbollah. Some members or supporters of the group blame these prisoners for car bombings or other such attacks on their villages. While many of those attacks were on Shia Muslim areas where Hezbollah support is predominant, Christian villages, such as al-Qaa and Ras Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley, were also subject to attacks.
Marcel Baloukji, a former brigadier general who oversaw the Lebanese army’s border committee with Syria, told Al Jazeera that the 300 or so prisoners who are to be transferred do not include many of the more hardened prisoners associated with ISIL or al-Qaeda whom Lebanese authorities have apprehended over the years.
But Baloukji also pointed out that the issue of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails is still important for the Lebanese side. Under the al-Assad regime, more than 100,000 people were forcibly disappeared, including hundreds or potentially thousands of Lebanese, going as far back as the Lebanese Civil War.
Mass graves have been found around Syria since the fall of the regime. However, much work needs to be done to identify all the bodies. Until now, the vast majority have still not been identified – neither Syrian nor Lebanese.