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Ten suspects go on trial in Paris on Monday over the 2016 robbery of the US celebrity Kim Kardashian, which saw some $10 million worth of jewellery stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.Kardashian, now 44 — who left Paris traumatised hours after the robbery on the night of October 2-3, 2016 — is due to testify at the trial on May 13 in a court appearance that will be a major event in itself.Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames like “Old Omar” and “Blue Eyes” that recall the old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s film noirs.Kardashian, then 35, was threatened with a gun to the head and tied up with her mouth taped up. The theft was the biggest against a private individual in France in the past 20 years.The trial will also go into how the perpetrators received the information as to where Kardashian was staying during Paris Fashion Week, and picked the very moment when her bodyguard was absent, accompanying her sister Kourtney to a night club.It is thought Kardashian’s frequent posts about her wealth, personal life and whereabouts may have facilitated the perpetrators’ actions. The trial gets under way from 1230 GMT.- Haul never recovered -The star was staying at an exclusive hotel in central Paris favoured by celebrities when two armed and masked men stormed into her room at around 3:00 am after arriving at the establishment by bicycle.They shouted that they wanted the diamond engagement ring from her now ex-husband, the US rapper Kayne West.Kardashian had been showing it off on her social media channels — it alone was valued at $4 million (3.5 million euros).They made off with the ring among $10 million worth of jewels.The only item recovered was a diamond necklace dropped in the street while the thieves escaped.It all lasted just 10 minutes, with Kardashian’s bodyguard arriving to rescue his client after he was alerted.The suspects were arrested three months after the robbery, through DNA evidence.But the gold seized was apparently melted down and investigators, who took hundreds of thousands of euros from the suspects when they were arrested, believe that much of the stolen haul was sold in Belgium.- ‘Easy’ heist -Twelve suspects were charged, with 10 going on trial from Monday. One died in March this year and another is to be tried separately for health reasons.”It wasn’t a major armed robbery” but an “easy” heist, said the main suspect, Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, known as “Old Omar”. His DNA from the scene helped investigators find him and the co-defendants.He admitted tying up Kardashian, but disputes investigators’ claims that he was the mastermind behind the robbery.He says he was approached by an unnamed “sponsor” who suggested the scheme on behalf of an “informant” very close to the star, who then gave them the green light.According to his lawyer, Khedache now has severe hearing and speaking problems and can only express himself in writing.Another key suspect is Didier Dubreucq, 69, known as “Blue Eyes”, accused of being the second person who stormed into Kardashian’s room. He denies the charges.Yunice Abbas, 71, meanwhile stayed in the lobby while the two other men went up to her room, it is alleged.He controversially sought to capitalise on the crime by writing a book titled: “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian”.Others on trial are accused of being facilitators and informants, including Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian’s long-serving Paris driver.He is accused of supplying information about her movements, which he denies.Despite the “media hype”, the trial “must allow for calm debates”, warned one of the defence lawyers, Margot Pugliese.The trial is due to last until May 23.

US President Donald Trump has come racing out of the gates in his second term in office, slashing government agencies, launching trade wars with friends and foes alike and even taking on the judiciary over his immigration crackdown.The Republican’s approval rating has sunk since returning to the White House — but his supporters could not care less. Here are five Americans who voted for Trump telling AFP in their own words why, despite the tumultuous first 100 days of his reign, they continue to support the unconventional billionaire.Frank Tuoti feels the economy ‘will work out'”So far, I’m very satisfied with the job he’s doing,” said Frank Tuoti, a 72-year-old retired machinist from New Hampshire. “I’m a little concerned about the economy with his tariff, his new tariff policies, but I’m hoping that it will work out,” he added, noting that his retirement investments have lost money due to stock market volatility. Tuoti is likely in the minority here, with a recent Fox News poll finding 56 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s economic policies. “I think it will work out in the end,” Tuoti continued.”He’s negotiating with a lot of different countries… and one thing he does know about is money, and making money.”Jane Sisk sees Trump having a ‘hard time’ on UkraineA retired mother of six, Jane Sisk also told AFP she had not checked her 401k retirement account recently “because I don’t want to get upset.” “I loved everything that he’s doing,” the 63-year-old Virginia resident said. Nevertheless, she recognized Trump has had trouble with landing his promised end to the war in Ukraine: “I think we got two very stubborn leaders that don’t want to give up on anything to, you know, let the war end. And I think, I think Trump and JD Vance both have done just about everything they can.””Trump is the art of the deal,” she continued. “But he’s having a hard time making a deal on that one, I will say!”Karen Miner, unbothered about tariffsAcross the country, Karen Miner owns a wine store in Reno, Nevada. Her merchandise is mostly imported and could be impacted by Trump’s escalating trade war — though she seems unconcerned at the moment. “You can’t do numbers yet, because essentially, we don’t know what those tariffs are going to be, because it’s still in negotiations,” Miner, 57, said. “They can always buy wines from the United States,” she added. Only nine percent of Trump voters currently disapprove of his actions, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll. “I mean, the guy is very brilliant, he knows what he’s doing,” Miner said.Christy Edwards applauds Trump’s immigration iron fist Christy Edwards, a retired teacher in North Carolina, said she supports Trump across the board — especially immigration, where the US leader’s mass deportations of illegal immigrants have faced challenges in the courts. “Those are the kind of people we don’t need in the United States,” the 54-year-old said. “He’s not deporting people who have not caused any problems. He’s deporting the criminals,” Edwards continued. Edwards also firmly rejected the use of public funds for immigrants: “We can’t support that right on, especially as working people, we’re the ones paying for all that.”Zack Kline wonders ‘how it’s going to change’A 22-year-old resident of York, Pennsylvania, Zach Kline noted Trump’s return to office has already caused some changes, such as a lower number of crossings at the southern US border, calling it “very refreshing to see.” “But a lot of things haven’t changed too much as of right now, so I’m just anxious to see how it’s going to change,” Kline said. He expressed excitement for certain promises Trump has made, such as allowing fracking and “cutting down on a lot of the waste that we have in our government.” “It’s kind of a wait-and-see because it’s only been 100 days,” he said.vid-arb-rfo-ube/bpe/jgc/aha

The United States has hit more than 800 targets in Yemen since mid-March, killing hundreds of Huthi rebel fighters, including members of the group’s leadership, the US military said Sunday.Washington’s forces have hammered the Huthis with near-daily air strikes since March 15 in an operation dubbed “Rough Rider,” seeking to end the threat they pose to vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and reestablish US regional “deterrence.””Since the start of Operation Rough Rider, USCENTCOM has struck over 800 targets. These strikes have killed hundreds of Huthi fighters and numerous Huthi leaders,” the military command responsible for the Middle East said in a statement that provided its most detailed accounting of the operation so far.”The strikes have destroyed multiple command-and-control facilities, air defense systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities, and advanced weapons storage locations,” CENTCOM said.Despite the strikes, the Huthis — who control large swaths of Yemen and have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognized government since 2015 — have continued to claim attacks against both US vessels and Israel.CENTCOM said that “while the Huthis have continued to attack our vessels, our operations have degraded the pace and effectiveness of their attacks. Ballistic missile launches have dropped by 69 percent. Additionally, attacks from one-way attack drones have decreased by 55 percent.””Iran undoubtedly continues to provide support to the Huthis. The Huthis can only continue to attack our forces with the backing of the Iranian regime,” the military command said.”We will continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region,” it added.- Strikes on Sanaa -As the United States announced details on the latest round of its campaign against the Huthis, the rebel-controlled Al-Masirah TV reported that US strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa had killed at least eight people and wounded others.Al-Masirah TV also broadcast footage of the rubble of destroyed homes and cars, as well as blood stains on the ground, while rescuers collected what appeared to be human remains in white cloth.Earlier Sunday, Huthi media said overnight strikes on Sanaa had killed two people and wounded several more.The latest strikes brings the death toll since March 15 to 228, according to an AFP tally based on Huthi announcements.The Huthi rebels began targeting shipping in late 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by a military campaign launched by Israel after a shock Hamas attack in October of that year.Huthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal — a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of the world’s shipping traffic — forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.The United States first began conducting strikes against the Huthis under the Biden administration, and President Donald Trump has vowed that military action against the rebels will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.The Trump administration has been forced onto the political defensive during the Yemen campaign by scandals stemming from senior officials’ use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss strikes that took place on March 15.Last month, The Atlantic magazine revealed that its editor-in-chief was mistakenly included in a Signal chat in which officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, discussed the strikes.US media outlets then reported earlier this month that Hegseth had shared information on the same strikes in a second Signal group chat with various people who would not normally be involved in such discussions, including his wife.

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he wanted Russia’s Vladimir Putin to “stop shooting” in Ukraine and sign a peace deal, one day after the US leader met Ukraine’s president at the Vatican.Trump, who boasted before his inauguration that he could halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within one day, has launched a diplomatic offensive since taking office to halt the fighting.Those efforts have so far failed to yield any results.”Well, I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal,” Trump said in response to a question on what he wanted from Putin.Trump was speaking on the tarmac at Morristown airport before boarding Air Force One bound for Washington, having attended the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday.”We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it,” Trump added, likely referring to a US-proposed peace plan for the more-than-three-year-long conflict in Ukraine.Trump had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the funeral, where the two leaders spoke face-to-face for the first time since a disastrous televised meeting in the White House in February.After their brief talk in St Peter’s Basilica, Trump cast doubt over whether Putin wanted an end to the war, which has devastated swaths of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.Trump also said on Sunday that he thought Zelensky was ready to give up Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula captured by Russia in 2014, as part of efforts to agree a peace deal.”Oh, I think so,” said Trump in response to a question on whether he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” the territory.Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, claimed to have annexed four eastern and southern territories of the war-battered country despite not having full military control over them.

Ryan Coogler’s 1930s vampire thriller “Sinners” sunk its teeth into another huge weekend at the North American box office, taking in $45 million, industry estimates showed Sunday. Michael B. Jordan (“Black Panther,” “Creed”) stars as twins in Coogler’s supernatural horror flick set in Mississippi, which has a near-perfect 98 percent fresh rating on movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.Hailee Steinfeld and Delroy Lindo also star in the music-driven Warner Bros film, which has a cumulative domestic take of $122.5 million.In second place was the 20th anniversary re-release of Disney’s “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” with a whopping $25.2 million, according to data from Exhibitor Relations.The result, one of the best ever for a re-release, “clearly demonstrates the audience and fan passion for this beloved franchise,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.Ben Affleck’s “The Accountant 2” debuted in third place at $24.5 million. The Amazon MGM Studios film stars Affleck as a neurodivergent math genius with ties to the criminal underworld and Jon Bernthal as his hit man brother.Video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie” from Warner Bros., starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, finished in fourth place with $22.7 million. It has so far grossed $380 million in North America — the top release so far this year — and another $436 million internationally, putting it on track to rake in a billion dollars. In fifth place was new Sony horror film “Until Dawn” at $8 million.Rounding out the top 10 were:”The King of Kings” ($4 million)”The Amateur” ($3.8 million)”Warfare” ($2.7 million)”The Legend of Ochi” ($1.4 million)”Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii” ($1.3 million)

Multiple Oscar-winner Francis Ford Coppola picked up a lifetime achievement award on Saturday at a star-studded ceremony which praised his “fearless” attitude to filmmaking. The 86-year-old director of classics including “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” received a trophy from fellow filmmaking legends Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who lauded him for fighting the system and redefining American cinema.”Star Wars” creator Lucas recalled Coppola telling him “don’t be afraid of jumping off cliffs,” while Spielberg hailed the “fearless” director and said that “The Godfather” was “the greatest American film ever made.””You have taken what came before and redefined the canon of American film, and in so doing, you’ve inspired a generation of storytellers,” Spielberg said. The award was given by the prestigious American Film Institute, which produces annual lists of the best films ever made and is seen as one of the industry’s most respected bodies.Taking the podium at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre in front of film veterans including Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, Coppola said that winning the award felt like coming home.”Now I understand here, this place that created me, my home, isn’t really a place at all, but you, friends, colleagues, teachers, playmates, family, neighbors, all the beautiful faces are welcoming me back,” Coppola said.The six-time Academy Award winner was praised by the AFI as a “dreamer”, a “pioneer” and also a “maverick.”Coppola, who famously threw five of his Oscars out a window in an outburst while making “Apocalypse Now,” heard emotional tributes from peers including De Niro, Al Pacino, Diane Lane, Harrison Ford and Ralph Macchio, who thanked the filmmaker for taking a chance on them.”When the studio wanted stars, you fought for actors,” said “Rain Man” star Hoffman.He joked that Coppola launched so many young actors’ careers, but only cast him in last year’s sci-fi drama “Megalopolis” when Hoffman was 86.The independent AFI has honored the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino in previous years.Pacino joined De Niro to pay tribute to Coppola, who directed them in the second installment of “The Godfather” trilogy.Coppola, who battled studio executives to make the film according to his own vision, told AFP that there is no art without adventure. “I think making art without risk is like making babies without sex. It’s possible, but it’s not the best way to do it,” he said.

The White House Correspondents’ Association staged its annual gala on Saturday in a muted celebration amid mounting concerns about press freedom under President Donald Trump. The dinner, while still as packed as previous years, took on a more somber, understated atmosphere with no president cracking self-deprecating jokes and no comedian.The event has been shunned by the Republican tycoon, who has sought to neuter the traditional media since his return to power in a number of moves that critics say are unconstitutional. The stage instead went to winners of journalism awards who saluted the value of the profession. Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, did not directly mention Trump but defended the press against his attacks. “What we are not is enemies of the people; what we are not are enemies of the state,” he said.He also offered words of support to The Associated Press, banned from the White House press pool by Trump, and Voice of America, which Trump has moved to shut down.It is normal for presidents to attend the evening — a formal occasion where the dress code is tuxedos and gowns — to congratulate distinguished journalists on their work, deliver a jokey speech and enjoy close-to-the-bone gags from a comedian picked by the organizers.Trump, who gave the gala a wide berth during his first term, had announced he would not attend once again. The president instead attended Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome.Neither was there a comedian to entertain the guests — a roster of hundreds of journalists, politicians and lobbyists.The WHCA said it had decided to cancel comic Amber Ruffin to ensure that the focus would be on awards and scholarship rather than political division.- ‘Enemies of the people’ -Ruffin was excoriating in her response to being dropped, telling talk show host Seth Meyers: “No, we have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners. That’s what it says in the First Amendment.”Alex Thompson of Axios, who won an award for coverage of former president Joe Biden, said that the previous White House’s efforts to hide Biden’s alleged cognitive decline showed that both major US parties were capable of deception. “We bear responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows,” he told the black-tie ceremony. Anthony Zurcher of the BBC, who won an award for coverage of the Gaza conflict, quipped that he was the evening’s entertainment. “Keep pushing, keep fighting and keep being fearless,” Zurcher told the crowd.For decades, the WHCA has regulated journalists’ access to the president, in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, in lockstep with a president who regularly calls journalists “liars” and even “enemies of the people,” has put an end to its oversight role. She now gives pride of place at briefings to what she calls “new media” — influencers, podcasters and TV presenters who more often than not are unabashed Trump supporters.The Associated Press, the top US news agency, has seen its access severely curtailed for rejecting Trump’s demands to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” — a decision it has challenged in court.The Trump administration has also begun to dismantle America’s publicly-funded “voices” abroad, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and “Voice of America.”Meanwhile federal funding for public broadcasters NPR and PBS is under threat. Trump has also launched legal assaults on private network CBS and the local Des Moines Register newspaper in Iowa, and brought to heel ABC, which paid $15 million under threat of a libel lawsuit. 

Stockpiling is the reflex response by firms to the imposition of tariffs, but with the rapidly-changing position of the Trump administration, companies are finding that it isn’t so straightforward this time around.Whether it’s the luxury, electronics or pharmaceutical sectors, US President Donald Trump’s unpredictability complicates the calculations of firms.Some companies didn’t wait for Trump’s April 2 announcement of massive “reciprocal” trade tariffs: they had already begun shipping more of their goods to the United States.In the end, Trump backed down quickly on the “reciprocal” tariffs, pausing them for 90 days except for China.That still left the global 10 percent tariff in place, as well as the 25 percent tariffs on European steel, aluminium and cars.French cosmetics firm Clarins didn’t hesitate and stepped up shipments to the United States at the beginning of the year.”We’ve built up three months of stocks, which represents $2 million in goods,” said Lionel Uzan, the head of Clarins’s US operations.With all of its products made in France, Clarins had few other options to mitigate the tariffs.- Discreet stockpiling -Even if they don’t all acknowledge it so openly, firms in many different sectors are stockpiling their products in the United States.In March, exports of Swiss watches to the United States jumped nearly 14 percent compared to the same month last year.More striking is Ireland, which plays host to a number of international pharmaceutical firms.Its exports to the United States jumped 210 percent in February to nearly 13 billion euros ($14.8 billion), with 90 percent of those being pharmaceutical products and chemical ingredients.Fermob, a French manufacturer of metal garden furniture that sells around 10 percent of its products in the United States, said it began planning for US tariffs once the result of the presidential election became known in November.It stepped up production in January and February.”We’ve sent around 30 percent of our extra stock to the United States,” said the company’s chief executive, Baptiste Reybier.That extra production has benefitted transportation firms.Lufthansa Cargo said it has seen in recent weeks “an increase in demand for shipments to the United States”.The trade war “has incited companies to accelerate certain stages in their supply chains”, it told AFP.”A similar trend was seen for the delivery of cars from the EU to the United States,” it said.The phenomenon also concerns US-made goods.The Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported recently that Chinese tech firms were snapping up billions of dollars of artificial intelligence chips made by US firm Nvidia in anticipation of Washington imposing export restrictions.- ‘Short-term approach’ -Stockpiling is not a solution, however, said analysts.Matt Jochim, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey who helps companies with supply chain issues, called stockpiling “a very short-term opportunistic” move.He said the practice has limits as tariffs are constantly changing and it isn’t always practicable.”In a lot of the electronics space, it’s also hard to do, because the technology changes so quickly, you don’t want to get stuck with inventory of chipsets or devices that are the prior version,” he said. Fermob said it was taking a measured approach to stockpiling.”Otherwise you’re replacing one risk with another,” the manufacturer’s Reybier said.”You have to finance stocks and there is also the risk of not having sent the right product.”Having a local subsidiary with warehouses also helped, Reybier added.”It’s too early to say whether we should have sent more or not.”

Three American children aged two, four and seven — one of whom has a rare form of cancer — have been deported from the United States alongside their undocumented immigrant mothers, campaigners announced Saturday.The deportations from the southern state of Louisiana come as President Donald Trump pursues a hard-line immigration policy, calling for mass expulsions of undocumented migrants.The administration of President Donald Trump contends one of the women asked for her child to be sent with her.”The New Orleans ICE Field Office deported at least two families, including two mothers and their minor children,” the National Immigration Project said in a Saturday statement, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.It said the deportations were hastily ordered, and carried out in the early hours of Friday.”One of the mothers is currently pregnant,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a separate statement, describing the deportations as “illegal and inhumane.”One of the US children removed from the country has “a rare form of metastatic cancer” and was deported without medication or medical consultations, the ACLU said.It added that ICE agents held the families “incommunicado” and failed to facilitate communication between the women and lawyers.- ‘Horrifying and baffling’ – Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said in the statement: “What we saw from ICE over the last several days is horrifying and baffling. Families have been ripped apart unnecessarily.””We should be gravely concerned that ICE has been given tacit approval to both detain and deport US citizen children.”In the case of one woman and her two-year-old who were deported to Honduras, Federal District Judge Terry Doughty has set a May 16 hearing “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process.””The government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the court doesn’t know that,” wrote Doughty in a court order dated Friday, highlighting that it is illegal to deport a US citizen.The girl has only been identified by the initials VML.Attorneys for her father filed an emergency request for a temporary restraining order aimed at obtaining the girl’s return.The Trump administration has butted heads with federal judges, rights groups and Democrats who say he has trampled or ignored constitutional rights in rushing to deport migrants, sometimes without the right to a hearing.In a post on social media Saturday, Trump claimed that undocumented migrants in the United States were “wreaking havoc like we have never seen before.” He dismissed due judicial process around deportations, saying: “It is not possible to have trials for millions and millions of people.””We know who the Criminals are, and we must get them out of the U.S.A. — and FAST!”On Friday, federal agents arrested a US judge in Wisconsin for allegedly shielding an undocumented migrant.The White House has also defied a Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

The United States and Iran reported progress in their latest round of nuclear talks on Saturday and agreed to meet again next week as they pursue a deal that could help ease soaring Middle East tensions.A US official called the talks “positive and productive”, and Iran’s top diplomat said the two sides will study how to narrow their differences on a range of subjects before next week’s fourth round.The highest-level contact in years between the long-time foes is targeting a new deal that would stop Iran developing nuclear weapons — an objective Tehran denies pursuing — in return for relief from sanctions.”There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the senior US official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the next talks would be in Europe.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Saturday’s talks, which included technical-level teams for the first time, “serious and businesslike”.”There are differences both in the major issues and in the details,” he told Iranian state TV.”Until the next meeting, further studies are to be conducted in the capitals on how to reduce the differences.”Araghchi added: “I think our progress has been good so far. I am satisfied with the process of the negotiation and its speed. I think it is proceeding well and satisfactorily.”US President Donald Trump pulled out of an earlier, multilateral agreement during his first term. The United States and Israel have repeatedly threatened Iran with military strikes.- ‘Minute details’ -US special envoy Steve Witkoff again led the American delegation while Michael Anton, the State Department’s head of policy planning, headed the US expert-level negotiators.Deputy foreign ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi led Tehran’s technical team, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.The delegations were in separate rooms and communicated in writing via the hosts, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei and Araghchi said.”The expert and technical talks… reached the stage of minute details about mutual demands and expectations,” an Iranian state TV reporter said.Iran’s defence and missile capabilities were not discussed, Baqaei told state TV, while an Iranian negotiator said the talks were “uniquely about sanctions and nuclear questions”, according to Tasnim.Araghchi had earlier expressed “cautious optimism”, saying this week: “If the sole demand by the US is for Iran to not possess nuclear weapons, this demand is achievable”.The talks coincided with a major blast at Iran’s Shahid Rajaee port that injured hundreds of people and killed at least four, state media reported.The port’s customs office said it probably resulted from a fire in a storage depot.Before the talks, Trump, in an interview published Friday by Time magazine, reiterated his threat of military action if a deal fell through.But he added that he “would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped”. The talks began in Muscat a fortnight ago and continued in Rome last Saturday.- Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ -They are the most senior engagement between the traditional enemies since 2018, when Trump withdrew from the landmark 2015 accord that gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.Since returning to office, Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Tehran.In March, he wrote to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing talks, but also warning of potential military action if diplomacy failed.On Tuesday, Washington announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil network — a move Tehran described as “hostile” ahead of Saturday’s talks.On Wednesday, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi called on Iran to explain tunnels built near its Natanz nuclear site, seen in satellite imagery released by the Institute for Science and International Security.Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit imposed by the 2015 deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.Araghchi has previously called Iran’s right to enrich uranium “non-negotiable”.Tehran last year revived engagement with Britain, France and Germany — also signatories to the 2015 deal — holding several rounds of nuclear talks ahead of the US meetings.Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged the three European states to decide whether to trigger the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 agreement, which would automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its non-compliance.The option to use the mechanism expires in October.Iran has warned it could withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the snapback is triggered.