Journals Wave

 Iran had sent a ‘reasonable’ response to the EU’s proposal to restore the nuclear deal last week, as negotiations continue. Iran is studying the United States’ response to a European Union-drafted agreement that would restore the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and Western powers, Iran’s foreign ministry has said. Iran had already given its own response to the EU proposal last week, which was described as “reasonable” by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josef Borrell. “This evening Iran received the US response through the European Union. The careful review of the response has started in Tehran,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Wednesday. “Iran will share its view with the EU, as the coordinator of the nuclear talks, upon completion of Tehran’s review.” The foreign ministry did not give any further details on how close the sides are to finalising a deal. In 2018, under former President Donald Trump, the US unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal, which...

 Joe Biden calls the sentence against the WNBA star, who was arrested at a Moscow airport in February, ‘unacceptable’. A Russian court has found US basketball star Brittney Griner guilty of drug smuggling, and sentenced her to nine years in prison in a ruling US President Joe Biden called “unacceptable”. The court “found the defendant guilty” of smuggling and possessing “a significant amount of narcotics”, Judge Anna Sotnikova told a court in the town of Khimki just outside Moscow. The player was also fined one million rubles ($16,300). Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs by police after the verdict, turning to reporters and saying: “I love my family”. Biden condemned the verdict and reiterated calls for the 31-year-old’s release. “My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as pos...

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States has successfully tested a Raytheon Technologies Corp air-breathing hypersonic weapon capable of speeds faster than five times the speed of sound, making it the third successful test of that class of weapon since 2013, the Pentagon said in a statement on Monday. The development program for the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) is being run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. Both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp are competing for the ultimate contract award. Air-breathing vehicles use air captured from the atmosphere to achieve sustained propulsion. Different propulsion types work in the vacuum of space. There have been four air-breathing hypersonic weapons tests since September. Raytheon’s product has been successful both times, and Lockheed had one successful test and one failure. “Advancing our nation’s hypersonic capabilities is a critical national imperative, and this was an important s...