Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who ruled Qatar from 1995 to 2013, making it the world's top LNG exporter, founding Al Jazeera and securing the 2022 World Cup, has died at 74, the Amiri Diwan announced.
Mexico says it will file criminal complaints with US state and federal prosecutors, sue detention operators GEO Group and CoreCivic, and petition international bodies over the deaths of 17 Mexicans in ICE custody or enforcement operations.
Oman, Qatar and Pakistan raced this weekend to revive US-Iran diplomacy after Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over following two nights of American strikes, with control of the Strait of Hormuz the central dispute.
Israel's cabinet voted unanimously on 28 June 2026 to recognise the 1915 Armenian genocide, the first official state act after a century of reticence shaped by ties with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called it a moral and historical duty; the resolution now heads to the Knesset. Turkey condemned the move as a political decision designed to cover Israel's own conduct in Gaza.
Israel and Lebanon, still technically at war, signed a US-mediated framework on 26 June pledging to end their conflict through a sequenced, conditional process. Israel will hand two pilot zones to the Lebanese army once Hezbollah is disarmed there, but keeps its security zone and sets no timetable. Beirut called it a first step; Hezbollah rejected it.
Lebanon, Israel and the United States signed a trilateral framework agreement in Washington on 26 June 2026, setting out a sequenced process to disarm Hezbollah and eventually withdraw Israeli forces. Hours later Hezbollah, excluded from the talks, rejected the deal, exposing the framework's central weakness.
Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, called the US-brokered deal that ended the 2026 Iran war 'a declaration of America's defeat.' The Pakistan-mediated Islamabad Memorandum trades an end to US and Israeli strikes and sanctions relief for Iranian curbs on uranium enrichment — but a clash over IAEA inspections, and a split between Tehran's pragmatists and hardliners, leaves the peace untested. For Europe, the payoff is already visible in falling crude prices.
US and Iranian delegations meeting at the Bürgenstock resort above Lake Lucerne agreed what mediators Qatar and Pakistan called a roadmap toward a final deal within 60 days, including a Strait of Hormuz communication line, a Lebanon de-confliction cell and the return of IAEA inspectors. The diplomacy unfolded as President Trump publicly threatened fresh strikes, leaving the core nuclear and sanctions questions unresolved and oil markets watching the Gulf.
The first round of formal U.S.-Iran post-ceasefire talks ended at the Bürgenstock resort with a road map toward a final deal in 60 days, sending oil lower and equities higher even as the enrichment dispute remained unresolved.
Luxembourg is one of the EU's six founding members and hosts the Court of Justice, the Parliament's secretariat and much of the Commission's administration. We explain how a country of 670,000 wields influence well beyond its weight.