World
US confirms third round of nuclear talks with Iran after ‘very good progress’
Trump threatens to abandon Russia-Ukraine peace talks
Fox News senior strategic analyst Jack Keane joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss the latest on the Trump administration’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and the president’s effort to end the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. and Iran have agreed to meet for a third round of talks later this week in Muscat, Oman, after they met in Italy with Omani intermediaries to discuss Iran’s nuclear program on Saturday.
Details of the negotiations have not been released and any concrete progress in ending Iran’s nuclear program remains unclear, though a senior administration official told Fox News that “very good progress” had been made.
“Today, in Rome, over four hours in our second round of talks, we made very good progress in our direct and indirect discussions,” the official said Saturday. “We agreed to meet again next week and are grateful to our Omani partners for facilitating these talks and to our Italian partners for hosting us today.”
TRUMP SAYS IRAN MUST DITCH ‘CONCEPT OF A NUCLEAR WEAPON’ AHEAD OF MORE TALKS
An Iranian newspaper with a cover photo of Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi and U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, in Tehran, April 12, 2025. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
Reports suggested that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at some point in the negotiations spoke face-to-face, the second time in as many weeks.
But the negotiations have not solely been “direct” between Washington and Tehran as President Donald Trump earlier this month insisted they would be, which Iran flatly rejected – suggesting some form of compromise was reached regarding the format of the discussions.
What Witkoff discussed directly with his Iranian counterpart remains unknown.
Araghchi also expressed some optimism in his review of the negotiations from Italy, though his perspective appeared slightly more muted.
“Relatively positive atmosphere in Rome has enabled progress on principles and objectives of a possible deal,” he wrote in a post on X. “We made clear how many in Iran believe that the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] JCPOA is no longer good enough for us. To them, what is left from that deal are ‘lessons learned.’ Personally, I tend to agree.”
COL. RICHARD KEMP DOUBTS TRUMP NEGOTIATIONS WITH IRAN WILL ‘ACHIEVE WHAT NEEDS TO BE ACHIEVED’
Technicians work inside a uranium conversion facility on March 30, 2005, near Isfahan, Iran. (Getty Images)
“The initiation of expert level track will begin in coming days with a view to hammer out details,” Araghchi said. “After that, we will be in a better position to judge. For now, optimism may be warranted but only with a great deal of caution.”
It remains unclear how this round of negotiations to end Iran’s nuclear program will differ from the original JPCOA, an Obama-era nuclear deal which Trump abandoned during his first term, though the president and other security experts have voiced a sense of urgency in finding a solution in the very near future.
But experts have warned these talks need to be far more encompassing than the JCPOA given the current advanced state of Iran’s nuclear program, and they need to happen very soon.
“The speed with which technical talks have been agreed to is worrying for those who hope to avoid a repeat of 2013 and 2015, as are allegations of Iran’s offer of a three-step interim or phased proposal for a deal,” Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital.
“It would be the height of strategic malpractice and a political own goal to allow the Islamic Republic to force America under the Trump administration into a deal that only slightly modified the accord that Trump rightly criticized and walked away from in 2018,” he added.
Similarly, retired Gen. Jack Keane, a Fox News senior strategic analyst, many security experts are watching these negotiation attempts with “real concern” because “Iran in 2025 is not the Iran in 2015 when that first nuclear deal was made.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, third from left, and other U.S. officials meet with EU and Iranian officials for nuclear talks in Vienna, Austria, June 30, 2015. (Pool/Siamek Ebrahimi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
“The difference is that Iran has the capability to manufacture advanced centrifuges which can enrich uranium from zero to weapons grade in just a matter of weeks,” Keane said.
Essentially, this means the U.S. must not only persuade Iran to get rid of its near-weapons-grade enriched uranium – enough to produce five nuclear weapons if further enriched – but also dismantle its manufacturing capabilities.
“The other thing that is different in 2025 – they have ballistic missiles that can deliver the weapon,” Keane added. “It remains to be seen what’s going to be in the deal.”
World
Shakira Acquitted of Tax Fraud in Spain, Will Be Reimbursed $64 Million: Singer Says She’s Spent Eight Years ‘Enduring Campaigns to Destroy My Reputation’
After an eight-year court battle, a Spanish court has ordered the country’s treasury to refund nearly $65 million to singer Shakira after ruling that the money was improperly collected.
The country’s high court has acquitted the Colombian singer of tax fraud and ordered the treasury to repay the money to her, with interest. In the ruling, the court said that tax authorities failed to prove Shakira had spent 183 days in Spain in 2011, effectively making her a resident and liable for personal income tax. The court ruled instead that she had spent just 163 days in the country during that financial year.
The country’s tax agency said it would appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court, and would make no payment until the final ruling.
In a lengthy statement following the ruling, Shakira said: “After more than eight years of enduring brutal public targeting, orchestrated campaigns to destroy my reputation, and sleepless nights that ultimately impacted my health and my family’s well-being, the National High Court has finally set the record straight. There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself could never prove otherwise, simply because it wasn’t true.
“Yet, for nearly a decade, I was treated as guilty. Every step of the process was leaked, distorted, and amplified, using my name and public image to send a threatening message to the rest of the taxpayers.
“Today, that narrative crumbles, and it does so with the full force of a court ruling. My greatest wish is that this ruling sets a precedent for the Treasury and serves the thousands of ordinary citizens who are abused and crushed every day by a system that presumes their guilt and forces them to prove their innocence at the cost of economic and emotional ruin. This victory is dedicated to them.”
The news comes just days after Shakira was announced as a halftime performer, along with Madonna and BTS, during the half-time show at this summer’s Fifa Men’s World Cup final. Earlier in May, she performed for an estimated 2 million people at a free concert on the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
World
Bodies of four missing Italian divers found inside ‘shark cave’ in Maldives days after they vanished
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Rescuers located the bodies of four Italian divers deep inside an underwater cave in the Maldives, days after the group vanished during a dangerous dive far beyond recreational limits, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said Monday.
Officials said Finnish cave-diving specialists found the bodies in the innermost section of the cave system in Vaavu Atoll, where the divers disappeared Thursday while exploring at a depth of about 160 feet. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 98 feet.
“As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part,” Maldives government spokesman Ahmed Shaam said, adding the victims were found “pretty much together.”
The Thinwana Kandu cave system where the bodies were found is known locally as “shark cave.”
RESCUE OPERATION FREES INJURED MAN TRAPPED 130 FEET UNDERGROUND IN ITALIAN CAVE
Monica Montefalcone, one of five Italian scuba divers who died near Alimathaa in the Maldives archipelago while exploring an underwater cave, is shown in this undated photo released by Greenpeace Italia on May 15, 2026. (Greenpeace Italia/AP)
Recovery crews plan to retrieve two bodies Tuesday and the remaining two the following day, officials said.
The discovery came after authorities resumed the search following the death of a Maldivian military diver involved in the rescue mission. Mohamed Mahdi died Saturday from decompression sickness after attempting to reach the trapped divers.
Mohamed Mahdi, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, died from decompression sickness during the dangerous mission, officials said. (Maldives National Defense Force)
A fifth Italian diver, identified earlier as a diving instructor, was previously found dead outside the cave.
BAGPIPER DIES DOING POPULAR VACATION ATTRACTION DAYS BEFORE MISSING SON’S REMAINS FOUND IN BACKYARD TREEHOUSE
The specialized Finnish team used advanced closed-circuit rebreather systems, allowing for longer and deeper dives in the cave’s confined environment.
Divers prepare to search for four missing Italian divers near Alimathaa Island, Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, on May 15, 2026. (Maldives President’s Media Division/AP)
Rough seas and hazardous underwater conditions repeatedly delayed search efforts as crews mapped and marked the cave entrance before pushing deeper inside.
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Authorities continue to investigate the situation and what led to the divers’ deaths.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Published on •Updated
The bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has criticised the overwhelmingly male nature of peace negotiation teams, linking it to contemporary diplomacy’s tendency toward short-term results.
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“This is a bigger problem we see around the world with different peace talks when we see that they don’t actually address the issues of long-standing peace,” she said at a press conference in Tallinn, Estonia on Sunday.
The ceasefires many talks yield, she said, too often simply declare hostilities over without resolving the “underlying issues” that perpetuate future violence.
Another problem, she said, is the lack of female input.
“There are also studies that show that when women are part of the negotiations, these peace (efforts) last longer,” Kallas expanded, adding that “the picture that we saw from the US China talks, (was) a lot of masculinity in the room”.
“Women have a role,” she said.
Various studies and international bodies, including the UN Security Council, argue that women’s participation in conflict resolution improves outcomes, but mediators and negotiating parties often leave women out of their teams.
According to data compiled by the Council on Foreign Relations, women represented only 16 percent of negotiators in active peace processes led or co-led by the United Nations in 2022.
Security and defence analyst Iana Maisuradze of the European Policy Centre think tank argues that the EU is a firm supporter of the UN resolution calling for more female participation during conflict resolution – and that it is not “sexist argument” to believe that women are beneficial to negotiations. She told Euronews the data backs this up.
“The argument is that women focus on things that male-dominated negotiators are not focusing on such as education, health, victims’ rights, social reconciliation (and) community: things that really bring people together rather than a zero-sum game, which men tend to do,” Maisuradze said.
“Having women at table works because we also bring different perspectives to the resolution of the conflict, and also to the implementation of peace agreements.”
A seat at the table
Kallas’ comments came amid wider chatter in the Belgian capital regarding whether the EU should have a seat at the table for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine – and who should represent the bloc if so.
Putin recently floated appointing former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as the EU’s lead negotiator in potential peace talks on Ukraine. This notion was widely dismissed by European heads of state, and the discussion of who Europe’s mouthpiece should be continues.
Diplomatic sources in Ukraine have said that Russia would “never” accept a woman as lead negotiator.
A diplomatic source in Brussels reiterated this, saying there is no possibility a female figure is being considered as part of the discussions. But another source in the Belgian capital told Euronews that “equality is an important factor”.
Regardless of their differences on the gender issue, most EU officials argue that appointing any envoy before a major European Council (EUCO) summit in June could be unrealistic.
European Commission spokesperson for foreign affairs Anitta Hipper said in response to a question by Euronews on Monday that Kallas is a “feminist” and “has a lot of practice back home”. She was the first female prime minister of Estonia from 2021 to 2024.
Hipper said the Commission could not comment on whether Russia would want a woman at the table, but reiterated that European heads of state will meet in Limassol in Cyprus in the coming weeks to discuss what form any future talks with Ukraine, Russia and Europe might take before June’s EUCO.
“What will be discussed is what our position is in terms of the demands and the ask and what unity we have in demanding our lists of asks from Russia,” Hipper said.
“This is something that we will be looking into – into the what, and not into the who.”
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