SnS MAG

By Olivia Le Poidevin

Iran's foreign minister Araghchi addresses a special session of the Conference on Disarmament at the UN, in Geneva

GENEVA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Iran and the United States reached an understanding on Tuesday on main "guiding principles" in talks aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, but that does not mean a deal is imminent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said.

Oil futures fell and the benchmark Brent crude contract tumbled more than 1% ‌after Araqchi's comments, which helped ease fears of conflict in the region, where the U.S. has deployed a battle force to press Tehran for concessions.

"Different ideas have been presented, ‌these ideas have been seriously discussed, ultimately we've been able to reach a general agreement on some guiding principles," Araqchi told Iranian media after the talks concluded in Geneva.

BOTH SIDES HAVE 'CLEAR NEXT STEPS'

The indirect discussions between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff ​and U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside Araqchi, were mediated by Oman. The White House did not respond to emailed questions about the meeting.

Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said in a post on X "much work is yet to be done" but Iran and the U.S. were leaving with "clear next steps" .

Just as talks began on Tuesday, Iranian state media said Iran would temporarily shut part of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil supply route, due to "security precautions" while Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards conducted military drills there.

Tehran has in the past threatened to shut down the strait to commercial shipping if it is attacked, ‌a move that would choke off a fifth of global oil flows ⁠and drive up crude prices.

Responding to comments by Trump that "regime change" in Iran might be the best course, the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, warned that any U.S. attempts to depose his government would fail.

"The U.S. President says their army is the world's strongest, but the strongest army in ⁠the world can sometimes be slapped so hard it cannot get up," he said, in comments published by Iranian media.

Speaking at a disarmament conference in Geneva after the talks, Araqchi said that a "new window of opportunity" had opened and that he hoped discussions would lead to a "sustainable" solution that ensured the full recognition of Iran's legitimate rights.

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Earlier, Trump said he himself would be involved "indirectly" in the Geneva talks and that he believed Tehran wanted ​to ​make a deal.

"I don't think they want the consequences of not making a deal," Trump told reporters aboard Air ​Force One on Monday. "We could have had a deal instead of sending the ‌B-2s in to knock out their nuclear potential. And we had to send the B-2s."

The U.S. joined Israel last June in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. The U.S. and Israel believe Iran aspires to build a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel's existence. Iran says its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, even though it has enriched uranium far beyond the purity needed for power generation, and close to what is required for a bomb.

IRAN SAYS IT WILL ONLY DISCUSS NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Since those strikes, Iran's Islamic rulers have been weakened by street protests, suppressed at a cost of thousands of lives, against a cost-of-living crisis driven in part by international sanctions that have strangled Iran's oil income.

Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues such as Iran's missile stockpile. Tehran says it ‌is willing only to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme - in exchange for sanctions relief - and that it will ​not give up uranium enrichment completely or discuss its missile programme.

Khamenei reiterated Iran's position that its formidable missile stockpile is ​non-negotiable and missile type and range have nothing to do with the United States.

A ​senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday the success of the Geneva talks hinged on the U.S. not making unrealistic demands and on its seriousness on lifting ‌the crippling sanctions on Iran.

U.S. B-2 BOMBERS STRUCK NUCLEAR TARGETS

Tehran and Washington ​were scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks ​in June last year when Washington's ally Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, and was then joined by U.S. B-2 bombers that struck nuclear targets. Tehran has since said it has halted uranium enrichment activity.

Iran has joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forgo atomic weapons ​and cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy ‌Agency.

Israel, which has not signed the NPT, neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons, under a decades-old ambiguity policy designed to deter surrounding enemies. Scholars believe it does.

(Reporting by ​Olivia Le Poidevin; Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Elwely Elwelly in Dubai, Menna Alaa El-Din in Cairo, Humeyra Pamuk in Budapest, Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru, Steve Holland ​in Washington, Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Lincoln Feast, Sharon Singleton and Gareth Jones)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Operations at Kenya's main airport are set to resume and return to normal after workers on Tuesday called off a two-day strike after reaching an agreement with the transport ministry.

Operations at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport were paralyzed on Monday, with flight delays of up to six hours, as airlines urged passengers to rebook their travel.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority in a statement said operations would resume immediately after a return-to-work agreement was reached with the trade union Tuesday.

The union was demanding better working conditions, pay, and benefits, and discussions on how their demands would be met were held on Tuesday.

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The airport is a major transport hub for regional and international travel.

Transport Minister Davies Chirchir reiterated the government's commitment to ensure the aviation sector remains stable.

Kenya Airways, in a statement, said it was in the process of normalizing the schedule and that "normal operations will resume within the next 24 hours."

Airport workers issued a strike notice last week after authorities failed to implement part of an agreement with the union. The agreement demanded better labor conditions as well as increased pay and benefits.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru's Congress was set to vote Tuesday on a motion to remove interim President José Jerí as prosecutors look intoallegations of corruption involving unreported meetingsbetween Jerí and two Chinese businessmen.

If the legislators secure a majority, Jerí will be ousted from the presidency a mere four months into his term. His removal would trigger yet another transition, forcing the legislature to appoint a new leader and marking a volatile new chapter in Peruvian politics just two months before national elections.

Jerí is the seventh president to lead the nation in the past decade. Hewas sworn into office in October, after his predecessor was ousted by Congress over corruption allegations and a rise in violent crime. He now faces removal from office from his former colleagues in Congress, who have accused him of misconduct and lack of capacity to carry out his presidential duties.

The 39-year-old interim president said he was hopeful he would survive the vote.

"I'm not dead yet," Jerí said during an interview over the weekend on Peruvian television Panamericana, insisting he would continue to serve the people of Peru until his "last day" in the presidential palace.

If he is removed from office, the legislators will choose a new president from among their members to govern until July 28, when he the interim leader will hand over the office to the winner of the April 12 presidential election.

In turn, Jerí will return to his position as a legislator until July 28, when the new Congress also takes office.

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It is also possible that the legislators will not vote for removal. The president is supported by the Fuerza Popular party, led bypresidential candidate Keiko Fujimorithe daughter of a former president who was imprisoned for human rights abuses.

The accusations against Jerí stem from a leaked report regarding a clandestine December meeting with two Chinese executives. One attendee holds active government contracts, while the other is currently under investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal logging operation.

Jerí has denied wrongdoing. He said he met the executives to organize a Peruvian-Chinese festivity, but his opponents have accused him of corruption.

The crisis is the latest chapter in a prolonged political collapse in a country that has seenseven presidents since 2016, and is about to hold a general election amid widespread public outcry over a surge in violent crime.

Despite a revolving door of presidents, Peru's economy has remained stable.

The Andean nation had an external debt to gross domestic product ratio of 32% in 2024, one of the lowest in Latin America, and the government has welcomed foreign investment in areas like mining and infrastructure.

Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean athttps://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believes the NBA should embrace tanking. No, really.

Cuban went on a lengthy diatribe Tuesday in which he described his feelings on the subject. In his post, Cuban outlined why he believes the NBA should focus on "creating experiences for fans" and admitted to tanking while he was running the Mavs.

In Cuban's post — whichcan be read in full here— he claimed that fans don't necessarily want to see their teams compete every single night. Cuban said that fans don't necessarily remember specific scores, dunks or shots from games. Instead, he argued, they remember those who attended the game with them.

Cuban said that fans are aware a team cannot win every single game, but that the hope of improvement is what drives fans forward. Sometimes, the easiest way to do that is to tank, per Cuban.

"Fans know their team can't win every game. They know only one team can win a ring. What fan that care about their team's record want is hope. Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring.

"The one way to get closer to that is via the draft. And trades. And cap room. You have a better chance of improving via all 3 , when you tank."

Cuban then admitted to tanking when he was with the Mavericks. He claimed the team didn't tank "often," but said the fans appreciated when the Mavericks pushed for better draft position. Cuban said tanking helped the team secure Luka Dončić during the 2018 NBA Draft.

Cuban eventually tried to connect the two issues, and argued "pricing fans out of games" is a bigger problem than tanking.

"You know who cares the least about tanking, a parent who cant afford to bring their 3 kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their fave player.

"Tanking isn't the issue. Affordability and quality of game presentation are."

It's an opinion that should get a lot of support from fans, though not necessarily one that fits with Cuban's "tanking is fine" narrative. There are plenty of ways for a team to grow fandom in sports. Offering affordable tickets certainly feels like a good way to get a wide number of fans invested in the team. Winning games is also pretty important on that end, though. It's a lot more fun to support a team that's playing well.

To Cuban's point, there are times when tanking does seem like an advantageous option for franchises. And after seeing the tactic put into place a number of times — and occasionally result in success — the practice is more accepted among fanbases at this point.

Fans are capable of understanding when it's the right move to try and secure the top pick in the draft. It's not always a guarantee that works out, but having a shot at more elite talent in the draft can make a huge impact on a franchise if the player selected is a superstar.

But that also results in a lot of bad basketball, especially during the second half of an NBA season. If a team has virtually no shot at winning, it's going to be tough to draw fans out to the game, regardless of how cheap it is to attend.

LIVIGNO, Italy — The original concept of the Winter Olympics was simple. In the early 1920s, a movement was born within the International Olympic Committee to designate a week for celebrating sports on snow and ice. By 1964, it had grown to more than 1,000 athletes in 34 events.

Three decades later, the Winter Games moved to a new schedule so that they no longer took place in the same year as the Summer Olympics. More recently, they've evolved to add more modern, youth-focused sports like snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

All the changes, however, have failed to solve one of the major issues inherent to winter sports: Except for a small handful of athletes who are mostly from mountainous European countries, the Winter Games lack diversity and star power. Even in the U.S., it's the rare athlete like a Lindsey Vonn or Shaun White that can break through into the mainstream conversation.

That's why the Winter Olympics needs to tweak its criteria and include the most popular winter sport in the world.

It's time to take basketball out of the Summer Games and put it where it belongs.

Basketball is, of course, not a winter sport by the IOC's definition because it's played indoors with no ice or snow to be found. But the rules can change when it's convenient for the IOC. Heck, this is an organization that put recent Winter Olympics in places like Sochi, Russia — a beachside resort where the temperature rarely gets below 40 degrees — and Beijing, where the climate is so dry they had to manufacture snow.

If they wanted basketball to be a Winter Olympic sport, they could easily manufacture a rule change that would allow it to happen. Is the sport played and watched in winter? OK, you're good to go!

And the IOC should push for that because it would significantly enhance the allure of the Winter Games to a worldwide audience while taking very little excitement away from summer, where basketball often seems like an afterthought.

As great as the basketball tournament has been, particularly at the last two Olympics with countries like France and Serbia mounting significant challenges to Team USA, fighting for attention with track and field, gymnastics, swimming and the rest is difficult. There's simply too much going on, particularly as the Summer Games have become bloated with events.

Two years ago in Paris, there were 329 medal events across 32 sports with more sports being added all the time like sport climbing in 2024 or flag football in 2028. This year in Milan Cortina, there will be 116 medal events in 16 sports. The Winter Olympics can grow only so much if you're restricting it to sports that require snow or ice to compete.

Maybe that works now for the IOC, but is it a sustainable strategy for the future?

If the IOC isn't concerned about TV ratings, particularly in the U.S., they should be. NBC's coverage in 2022 averaged 11.4 million viewers across all its platforms, down from 19.8 million in 2018. That was already down about 7% from Sochi in 2014.

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There's probably some statistical noise in that trend line due to time zone issues (holding the last two Winter Olympics in China and South Korea was a disaster for American viewers), as well as the bad vibes surrounding 2022 with Beijing still in the midst of a full COVID lockdown. At that point Americans were tired of talking about it, but it was impossible to flip on an event, see empty stands and not think about the pandemic.

Interest has bounced back and ratings are reportedly up with a more traditional Winter Games set in the Italian Alps and event times that are more conducive to American viewership. It's also helps significantly that NHL players have returned to the men's hockey competition for the first time since 2014.

But over the long haul, the Winter Olympics are just too limited, philosophically and geographically, to grow viewership with younger demographics.

Outside of Europe, the U.S. and Canada, participation is sparse. Adding the X Games sports has brought in some athletes from Australia and New Zealand, while Japan, China and South Korea usually have a big presence in skating events. But South America, Africa, the Middle East and even some large population countries like Spain (14 athletes at 2022 Games), Brazil (10) and Mexico (4) are practically absent.

That's always going to be a challenge for the IOC. It's hard to build a viewer base for winter sports in places that don't have much winter.

But that's also why it makes so much sense to take basketball — a sport that reaches all corners of the globe — and give it the Olympic showcase it deserves at a time of year when fans are used to watching the NBA and the various leagues around the world.

Suddenly, Argentina is interested. Australia and Greece are involved. The South Sudan story was huge in Paris and it would be even bigger in this context simply because of what it would mean for awareness of the Winter Games across the entire African continent.

Also, no disrespect to any athlete getting ready to compete in Milan Cortina, but the Winter Olympics just doesn't have as many big, worldwide stars as the Summer Games. Yes, every speed skater is famous in the Netherlands, the Germans love their bobsledders and cross-country skiers are huge in Norway. But those are niche sports and niche markets. Having a Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic or Caitlin Clark bring mainstream appeal to the Winter Olympics would be transformative.

Such a huge change, of course, would require a lot of cooperation from the NBA and European leagues to pause their seasons in February. It would probably be difficult to find many NBA owners who want to send their star players away for a couple weeks and risk injury before the stretch run.

Admittedly, it's a lot to ask. But the NHL has managed to do it, and the upside is that it wouldn't require NBA players to devote such a huge chunk of their offseason in Olympic years going to training camps and playing exhibition games before the actual event. If the NBA was willing to tweak its schedule to allow for it once every four years, there would be clear momentum coming out of the Olympics that might even reengage some casual fans before the playoffs.

At the end of the day, basketball is just not needed at the Summer Olympics. There is already so much to consume, you could remove it entirely and few would notice. It would, however, transform the Winter Games into a more global event that could comfortably share the stage with its traditionally popular offerings like figure skating and hockey.

The Olympic movement always evolves. Its next big move should be placing the world's most popular winter sport in the Winter Olympics.

One of Tyreek Hill's former teammates didn't waste any time trying to recruit the eight-time Pro Bowler back to Kansas City.

Chris Jones, who overlapped with Hill for the first six years of their career and won a Super Bowl together, tagged Hill's X account in a post and wrote, "It's [time]" —using a clock emoji — just seven hours after news broke about the Dolphins planning to release the injuredwide receiver.

Kansas City has already emerged as one of the logical destinations for Hill, according to ESPN,along with the Chargers— where former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is now the offensive coordinator.

It's where Hill starred after being a fifth-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, finishing with more than 1,000 receiving yards in four seasons and becoming one of the trusted targets Patrick Mahomes used while constructing the foundation for the Chiefs' dynasty.

But in March 2022, around two months after the Chiefs lost to the Bengals in the AFC Championship game, Kansas City stunningly traded Hill to the Dolphins, and that's where he spent the last four seasons.

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Hill opened his Miami stint with consecutive 1,000-yard campaigns, including one in 2023 where he finished with an NFL-best 1,799 receiving yards, but he hasn't topped 965 yards in each of the last two seasons. Miami will save roughly $23 million in salary cap space by releasing Hill.

Off-field issues also emerged throughout his tenure with the Dolphins, as his estranged wifealleged in Septemberthat eight instances of domestic violence occurred during the course of their 17-month marriage.

Hilltore his left ACL, dislocated his knee and sustained other ligament damagejust four games into the 2025 campaign, but he vowed in an Instagram post Monday — after reports of his Dolphins release — that the "journey doesn't stop here."

"Every chapter in life has taught me something," Hillwrote, in part, in his statement. "This one taught me leadership, resilience, and mostly gratitude. The love I have for this game is unexplainable. And right now, this off season, for the first time ever, The Cheetah is all the way turned up and locked in. Focused.

"… The Cheetah don't slow down. Ever. So to everyone wondering what's next… just wait on it."

Jones hopes it'll involve Kansas City.

Feb 17 (Reuters) - Peru's Congress on Tuesday began a debate in which they will discuss whether to remove President ‌Jose Jeri after just four months in office, following ‌a scandal over undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman.

If a simple majority approves Jeri's ​removal, this would continue a revolving door of leaders in the South American nation, which despite years of political turbulence counts one of the region's most stable economies.

If removed, Jeri's successor would become the ‌Andean nation's eighth president ⁠in as many years, making Jeri the third consecutive president to be removed from office.

The motions being ⁠debated are to censure President Jose Jeri, a measure that would remove him from the presidency by stripping him of his title as ​President ​of Congress.

Unlike impeachment, which requires a ​supermajority of 87 votes ‌in the 130-member legislature, censure requires a simple majority of 66 or less if fewer legislators are in attendance.

The president and his allies have argued that he should face an impeachment trial and not censure, but Jeri has said he would respect the outcome ‌of the censure vote.

While the current ​President of Congress, Fernando Rospigliosi, would be ​next in the line ​of succession, he has said he won't assume the ‌presidency, meaning legislators would have ​to elect a ​new head of Congress who would then assume the presidency.

This would be similar to Francisco Sagasti's ascent to the presidency ​in 2020 after he ‌was chosen by Congress amid a sharp political crisis ​and protests following former President Manuel Merino's five-day presidency.

(Reporting ​by Sarah Morland and Alexander Villegas)