Iran says a deal with the United States is “not imminent” despite reports of progress in ongoing indirect negotiations aimed at reducing regional tensions and ending the current conflict.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran and Washington had reached understandings on “many topics” being discussed in a possible memorandum of understanding, but warned that differences remain and no final agreement is close yet.

The comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had instructed negotiators not to rush into an agreement, saying “time is on our side.”

According to reports, the talks involve:

• Extending and stabilizing the current ceasefire,
• Reopening the Strait of Hormuz,
• Easing some sanctions and trade restrictions,
• And broader regional security arrangements.

Iranian officials say changing U.S. positions and disagreements over key issues are slowing progress. Washington has continued insisting on major limits to Iran’s nuclear activities and regional military influence, while Tehran wants guarantees against future military action and sanctions pressure.

Despite the cautious tone, both sides appear to be keeping diplomatic channels open through intermediaries including Oman and Pakistan. Analysts say neither Tehran nor Washington currently wants a return to full-scale escalation, especially with global energy markets sensitive to instability around the Persian Gulf.

During the press conference, Baqaei insisted that the framework being drafted “is focused on ending the war” across the region, including in Lebanon.

He reiterated that details on Iran’s nuclear programme — a key sticking point for Washington — were not included and that the issue would only be discussed after the two sides agree on the framework.

Clauses on ending the US naval blockade on Iranian ports, in place since April 13, and arrangements on the strategic Strait of Hormuz were included, he said.

“US actions under the title of a naval blockade must be stopped, and at the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran will take the necessary measures for safe transit in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

Iran, which has only allowed a trickle of ships to pass through the strait, has insisted that vessels obtain permission from its armed forces before transiting the waterway.

Baqaei said Iran was not imposing tolls on ships transiting the strait but rather collecting fees for “navigational services”.

“The services that are provided — navigational services in addition to the measures necessary to protect the environment of the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman — require the collection of certain fees,” he said, adding that Iran was “not seeking to collect tolls”.

The death toll from the collapse of a nine-storey building under construction in the Philippines has risen to four, while 17 people are still missing as rescue teams continue searching through the rubble in Angeles City, north of Manila.

Authorities said most of the missing are construction workers who were sleeping inside the unfinished hotel building when it collapsed early Sunday after severe thunderstorms. Rescue crews have managed to pull at least 26 people from the site alive so far.

One of the victims was a Malaysian tourist staying at a nearby budget inn that was struck by falling debris when the structure came down. Emergency teams are using K9 dogs, thermal scanners, heartbeat detectors, and manual digging because unstable concrete slabs and twisted steel make heavy machinery dangerous to use.

Officials said the building had previously faced safety concerns. Labor inspectors reportedly halted construction in 2024 over violations including missing safety gear and unsafe working conditions before work later resumed after compliance measures were introduced.

Police and local authorities have opened an investigation into possible violations of building and construction regulations, including reports that an unapproved tenth-floor swimming pool was being added to the project.

One of the victims had a pulse when he was retrieved but later died while another suffered cardiac arrest while still trapped, Maria Leah Sajili, an information officer at the Bureau of Fire Protection, said in a phone interview.

Crews pulled the body of another person from the rubble, but it was not immediately clear if the unidentified body belonged to a person listed among the missing, rescuers said in an updated toll.

Sajili said: “Rescue in [a] building collapse is very challenging since any sudden shift triggered by the movements of our rescuers can cause areas to move and people under can get crushed.”

Sudden movements “may also bury our responders”, she said, explaining why this phase of the operation has to be done mostly manually.

If no more survivors are found, mechanical diggers and other heavy equipment will be brought in to clear debris and recover bodies, she said, but gave no timeline.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.

Angeles Mayor Carmelo Lazatin told reporters that authorities were trying to locate the building owner to get answers, including clarity on the number of workers at the site.

A large-scale Russian missile and drone assault on Ukraine has killed at least four people and injured dozens more, with Kyiv suffering some of the heaviest damage in recent months. Ukrainian officials said Russia launched around 90 missiles and 600 drones overnight in one of the biggest aerial attacks of the war this year.

The strikes hit residential buildings, schools, markets, water infrastructure, and commercial areas across Kyiv and surrounding regions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 100 people were injured nationwide, while emergency crews battled fires and searched damaged buildings for survivors.

Russia reportedly used its Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile during the assault, marking another rare deployment of the nuclear-capable weapon. Ukrainian officials said the missile struck the city of Bila Tserkva south of Kyiv.

Moscow said the bombardment was retaliation for a Ukrainian drone attack on a student dormitory in Russian-controlled Luhansk that Russia says killed civilians. Ukraine denies deliberately targeting civilians and says it struck a military drone command facility.

The attacks come as peace negotiations remain stalled and international concern grows over further escalation. European leaders condemned the strikes, while NATO countries reportedly increased air-defense readiness near the alliance’s eastern borders.

Both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned the reported use of the weapon, while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described it as a “political scare-tactic and reckless nuclear-brinkmanship”.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper lamented the “awful scenes” in Kyiv and vowed to “keep up pressure on Russia”.

Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said two people had been killed in the capital and 56 wounded, while the head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people had also been killed there, and nine wounded, based on preliminary estimates.

Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of Kyiv, adding that an attack on a school had started a fire and another on a business centre led to people being trapped in a shelter.

Svitlana Onofryichuk, a Kyiv resident who had worked for 22 years in the market that was hit, told the Associated Press: “It was a terrible night and there has never been anything like it in the entire war.

An Israeli ⁠air ⁠strike has killed at least five police ⁠officers and a 13-year-old boy, Gaza police say, as Israel continues its attacks across the Gaza Strip despite the “ceasefire” in place.

Reporters from Gaza City on Saturday, said that the police officers were killed on the spot, and according to sources at al-Shifa Hospital, at least one civilian on a nearby street was also killed. At least 10 others were wounded.

The incident comes amid continued violence across Gaza despite ongoing ceasefire discussions. Palestinian health officials say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli operations since the truce began, while Israel says it continues striking militant targets and responding to security threats.

In a statement, the Gaza police directorate said two missiles had hit a police post in the at-Twam area in northern Gaza.

The missile strike on a police post comes as the 10,000-strong police force in Gaza has emerged as ⁠a sticking point in talks ⁠to advance United States President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza.

The war that Israel launched following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas was halted by a ceasefire on October 10, 2025, but the Israeli military has carried out almost daily attacks on Gaza since then and maintains a strict security regime.

Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave has now killed at least 72,775 Palestinians, with 883 people killed since the ceasefire came into effect.

The bodies of eight Palestinians, along with 29 wounded people, arrived at hospitals across Gaza in the past 48 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The attacks on Gaza’s police force further threaten the distribution of aid while the Palestinian enclave continues to struggle with a humanitarian crisis.

Earlier this month, as Indian television channels and government leaders were celebrating the anniversary of the war against Pakistan in May 2025, one of the most influential ideologues of the political movement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads struck a discordant note.

In an interview with an Indian news agency, Dattatreya Hosabale, general secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the mothership of the Hindu majoritarian philosophy of Hindutva that guides Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party –  said New Delhi should explore dialogue with Pakistan.

“We should not close the doors. We should always be ready to engage in dialogue,” he said.

His comments instantly stirred up a political storm in India, with the opposition questioning the RSS position and pointing out how it was in stark contrast to Modi’s.

Indeed, Modi and his government have repeatedly said “terror and talks can’t go together”, arguing against any dialogue with Pakistan, which India accuses of sponsoring and arming fighters that have attacked Indian-administered Kashmir and Indian cities for decades. The four-day 2025 war – which Pakistan and India both insist they “won” – followed an attack by gunmen in the resort town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir in which 26 tourists were killed.

Pakistan welcomed Hosabale’s comments, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi saying Islamabad would wait to see whether there was “an official reaction” from India to calls for talks.

More than a week later, the Modi government is yet to formally respond to Hosabale’s call for dialogue, but other prominent voices in India have backed the RSS leader, leading to suggestions that New Delhi might be preparing the ground to restart formal engagement with Pakistan.

Analysts say, however, that while there’s a growing rationale for the neighbours to re-engage diplomatically, and that they have already quietly taken baby steps in this direction, resurrecting a full-fledged dialogue will not be easy.

At least 90 people have been killed after a gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northern China’s Shanxi province, according to Chinese state media. The blast happened at the Liushenyu coal mine in Qinyuan county while 247 workers were underground.

Officials said rescue teams managed to bring most miners to the surface, but several people remain missing and more than 100 workers have been hospitalized, many suffering from toxic gas inhalation. Carbon monoxide levels inside the mine reportedly exceeded safety limits.

The disaster is being described as China’s deadliest mining accident in more than 16 years. President Xi Jinping ordered “all-out” rescue operations and demanded a full investigation into the cause of the explosion. Authorities have reportedly detained executives connected to the mine operator.

The Liushenyu mine, operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Group, had previously appeared on official lists of high-risk mines because of elevated gas levels. The tragedy has renewed scrutiny of industrial safety standards in China’s coal sector, which remains one of the world’s largest despite years of efforts to reduce mining accidents.

Wang Yong, an injured miner, told state media that when the incident happened, he did not hear a sound but saw a sudden plume of smoke.

“I smelled sulphur, the same smell you get from blasting. I shouted at people to run. As we were running I could see people collapsing from the fumes. Then I blacked out too,” he said.

“I lay there for about an hour or so before I came round on my own. I woke up the person next to me and we got out together.”

Some of the management team at the mine have reportedly been detained. The cause of the gas explosion has not yet been revealed, but state media reported that the levels of carbon monoxide – a highly toxic, odourless gas – in the mine were found to have “exceeded limits”.

China’s Ministry of Emergency Management has sent 345 personnel from six rescue teams to help with the operation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed retaliation after accusing Ukraine of carrying out a drone strike on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled city of Starobilsk in the Luhansk region. Russian officials said at least six people were killed, dozens injured, and several others remain missing.

According to Moscow, the attack struck a dormitory connected to a pedagogical university where teenagers aged 14 to 18 were staying. Putin described the strike as a “terrorist attack” and said there were no military facilities nearby, insisting the building was deliberately targeted. He said he had ordered Russia’s military to prepare response options.

Ukraine denied intentionally targeting civilians. Ukrainian military officials said the strike targeted a Russian drone command unit in the area and accused Moscow of manipulating the incident for propaganda purposes.

Ukraine’s military said it hit the headquarters of Russia’s elite Rubicon drone military unit in Starobilsk. It did not say whether it was the same building as the one identified by Russia.

“There are no military facilities, intelligence service facilities, or related services in the vicinity,” Putin said in Moscow.

“Therefore, there is absolutely no basis for claiming that the munitions struck the building as a result of our air defence or electronic warfare systems,” he said at a reception in his Kremlin residence on Friday.

He ordered the Russian military to prepare its “proposals” on how to retaliate.

The Russian leader said the Ukrainian strike had been carried out in three waves using 16 drones.

Russia’s state-run TV showed what it said was one of the injured students, identifying her as Diana Shovkun, aged 19.

She had head injuries after a being hit by a collapsing concrete slab, the TV said report said.

No photos or videos of those who Moscow says were killed were shown.

Later on Friday, Ukraine’s military said its overnight strike targeted Rubikon’s headquarters in Starobilsk. It accused fighters from the special drone unit of regularly striking civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

The statement also said that Ukrainian forces “are causing damage to military infrastructure and facilities used for military purposes, strictly adhering to the norms of international humanitarian law, laws and customs of war”.

Trump, in a Truth Social post, cited his relationship with Poland’s conservative nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, as the reason behind his decision ​to send additional troops.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has welcomed the United States’ decision to send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, calling it an important reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank amid continuing security concerns linked to Russia.

The announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would deploy the troops following talks with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. Around 10,000 American troops are already stationed in Poland.

Rutte said NATO military commanders were working through operational details ahead of a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Sweden. The move is seen as strengthening NATO’s defenses near the alliance’s border with Russia and Belarus.

The decision follows confusion earlier this week after reports that the Pentagon had delayed or reconsidered some troop deployments in Europe as part of a broader review of U.S. military commitments abroad. Several NATO allies had expressed concern about possible reductions in American forces on the continent.

The White House has signalled in recent weeks that it intends to reduce its overall troop levels in Europe as part of its “America First” agenda.

Rubio is expected to call for increased burden sharing from Washington’s Nato partners at Friday’s talks in Helsingborg.

Speaking to reporters on Friday morning, he said: “The president’s views are frankly disappointment at some of our Nato allies and their response to our operations in the Middle East.

“In the meantime there are other areas where we continue with cooperation,” he added – citing the Poland announcement.

“That said obviously the United States continues to have global commitments that it needs to meet in terms of our force deployment and that constantly requires us to re-examine where we put troops – this is not a punitive thing.”

Ahead of the meeting, the BBC asked Rubio about unconfirmed reports the US could shrink its total troop numbers available in the event of an attack on a Nato country.

He said “some of those issues” will be discussed at the summit, adding Trump remained very upset and disappointed with Nato allies.

An Ebola treatment center in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo was set on fire by angry residents amid growing tensions over the handling of Ebola victims’ bodies during the country’s latest outbreak.

The violence happened in Rwampara, near Bunia in Ituri province, where protesters stormed and burned tents used for Ebola isolation and treatment after authorities refused to release the body of a local man for a traditional burial. Health officials suspected the man had died from Ebola, but relatives disputed the diagnosis.

The man who died was a popular figure in the local community and those upset by his death did not “grasp the reality of the disease,” Jean Claude Mukendi, who is co-ordinating the security response to Ebola in Ituri, told the Associated Press.

Witnesses told Reuters the young man was a footballer who had played with several local teams. His mother told the news agency she believed her son had died of typhoid fever, not Ebola.

Witnesses said police fired warning shots and tear gas as crowds clashed with security forces. Some aid workers fled the facility while treatment tents and at least one stored body were reportedly destroyed in the fire.

Malembe said the crowd did not believe the virus, which has so far killed more than 130 in eastern DR Congo, was real.

“People are not properly informed or sensitised about what is happening. For a certain segment of the population, especially in remote areas, Ebola is an invention by outsiders – it does not exist,” the politician said.

“They believe it is the NGOs and hospitals creating this to make money, and this is tragic.”

He said two tents had been burned down, along with a body that had been due to be buried.

The unrest highlights deep mistrust toward Ebola response teams and the difficulty of enforcing strict burial protocols in areas where traditional funeral practices are culturally important. Aid agencies say misinformation and fear are complicating efforts to contain the outbreak.

The current outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no widely approved vaccine or treatment. The World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak may be significantly larger than official figures suggest. Reports indicate hundreds of suspected cases and more than 100 deaths across eastern Congo, with cases also reported in neighboring Uganda.