Deputy foreign ministers of Russia, China and Iran call for multilateral talks on ending ‘unlawful’ US sanctions.

Representatives of Iran, Russia and China have urged United States President Donald Trump’s administration to end sanctions imposed against Tehran over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme, while calling for the resumption of the multilateral talks on the issue.

The three nations “emphasised the necessity of terminating all unlawful unilateral sanctions”, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu read from a joint statement issued on Friday. He was flanked by his counterparts from Russia, Ryabkov Sergey Alexeevich, and Iran, Kazem Gharibabadi.

“The relevant parties should work to eliminate the root causes of the current situation and abandon sanctions, pressure and threats of the use of force,” Ma said.

Iran’s Gharibabadi praised the meeting as “very constructive and positive”, even as he accused “some countries” of creating “an unnecessary crisis” to thwart Tehran.

Later on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was due to meet with the three senior diplomats.

The talks are the latest attempt to resolve the Iran impasse, as Trump tries to reach out to its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an attempt to jumpstart talks.

Any progress on the Iran talks with the Trump administration requires the support of Russia and China, which are both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council alongside the US, France and Britain.

The approval of the Security Council paved the way for the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump abandoned in 2018 during his first term as president, setting in motion years of attacks and tensions in the wider Middle East.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67 percent purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilogrammes (661 pounds). The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran’s programme put its stockpile at 8,294.4kg (18,286 pounds) as it enriches a fraction of it to 60 percent purity.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful.

While Iran has maintained it would not negotiate under threat, its economy has been savaged by the US sanctions. Protests over women’s rights, the economy and Iran’s theocracy in recent years have shaken its government.

Last Friday, Trump said he had sent a letter to Khamenei, urging negotiations but also warning of possible military action.

In response, Khamenei mocked the US president saying he was not interested in talks with a “bullying government”. He complained that Tehran “negotiated for years, reached a complete and signed agreement”, and Trump “tore it up”.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also said that he would not negotiate with the US while being “threatened”, and Iran would not bow to US “orders” to talk. But he had previously said in a speech to the UN that Tehran was “ready to engage”.

Other Iranian officials have offered some signals over the possibility of negotiations, and the latest meeting in Beijing could indicate its openness for new talks.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports — especially photographs and police body-camera video — related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home last month.

Authorities last week announced that Hackman died at age 95 of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s disease as much as a week after a rare, rodent-borne disease — hantavirus pulmonary syndrome — took the life of his 65-year-old wife.

Hackman’s pacemaker last showed signs of activity on Feb. 18, indicating an abnormal heart rhythm on the day he likely died. The couple’s bodies weren’t discovered until Feb. 26 when maintenance and security workers showed up at the Santa Fe home and alerted police — leaving a mystery for law enforcement and medical investigators to unravel.

Julia Peters, a representative for the estate of Hackman and Arakawa, urged a state district court in Santa Fe to seal records in the cases to protect the family’s right to privacy in grief under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — emphasizing the possibly shocking nature of photographs and video in the investigation and potential for their dissemination by media.

The request, file Tuesday, also described the couple’s discrete lifestyle in Santa Fe since Hackman’s retirement. The state capital city is known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.

The couple “lived an exemplary private life for over thirty years in Santa Fe, New Mexico and did not showcase their lifestyle,” said the petition.

New Mexico’s open records law blocks public access to sensitive images, including depictions of people who are deceased, said Amanda Lavin, legal director at the nonprofit New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. Some medical information also is not considered public record under the state Inspection of Public Records Act.

At the same time, the bulk of death investigations by law enforcement and autopsy reports by medical investigators are typically considered public records under state law in the spirit of ensuring government transparency and accountability, she said.

“I do think it does infringe on transparency if the court were to prohibit release of all the investigation records, including the autopsies,” Lavin said Thursday. “The whole idea of those records being available is to ensure accountability in the way those investigations are done.”

“There is also a public health concern given that hantavirus was involved,” Lavin said.

She said the preemptive request to prevent the release of government records on constitutional grounds is unusual.

Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers” and “Superman” from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.

Portugal will hold an early general election on May 18, the country’s president announced Thursday, two days after a minority government lost a confidence vote in parliament and stood down.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has no executive power but can dissolve parliament and call elections, described the government’s collapse as a shock that was neither “expected nor wanted.”

In a televised address to the nation, he urged voters to participate actively in the European Union country’s third general election in three years, saying the continent faces stiff challenges to its security and economy that require political stability.

The centre-right government’s fall on Tuesday amid questions about the prime minister’s conduct brought the worst bout of political instability since Portugal adopted a democratic system more than 50 years ago in the wake of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, which ended a four-decade dictatorship.

Portugal, which has a population of around 10.6 million people, has had a series of minority governments in recent years as the traditional rivals for power, the centre-right Social Democratic Party and the centre-left Socialists, lost votes to growing smaller parties.

The minority governments have been unable to build compromises that might ensure an administration completes its constitutional four-year term without opposition parties teaming up to block its policy proposals and bring it down.

The ballot deepens political uncertainty just as Portugal is in the process of investing more than €22 billion in EU development funds.

Voter discontent with a return to the polls could bring dividends for the right-wing populist party Chega (Enough), which has fed off frustration with the two mainstream parties.

Portugal has been caught up in the rising tide of European populism, with Chega surging into third place in last year’s election.

The government, led by the Social Democrats in an alliance with a smaller party, fell amid a controversy that has revolved around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of outgoing Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s family law firm.

Montenegro, who says he’ll stand for re-election, has denied any wrongdoing. He said he placed control of the firm in the hands of his wife and children when he became Social Democratic leader in 2022 and has not been involved in its running.

It recently emerged that the firm is receiving monthly payments from a company that has a major gambling concession granted by the government, among other sources of revenue.

The Socialists demanded a parliamentary inquiry into Montenegro’s conduct.

The Social Democrats are hoping that economic growth estimated at 1.9% last year, compared with the EU’s 0.8% average, and a jobless rate of 6.4%, roughly the EU average, will hold their support steady.