In a huge and very positive development, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has announced a32-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Easter, or Pascha, which is this weekend. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has immediately confirmed that Ukraine will honor the holiday truce.
"We proceed on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation," the Kremlin then further confirmed in a statement.
Based on regional media reporting of the rare ceasefire, the pause in fighting will begin at 4pm Moscow time (13:00GMT) on Saturday and run until midnight on Sunday.
This will cover the whole period of Pascha celebrations in both countries, which is done according to the Julian calendar and thus typically comes a weekend or two later that Western Easter (on the Gregorian calendar). The overwhelming majorities of both countries are adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Typically in orthodox churches there is a long Saturday morning service, and then the main liturgy comes at midnight - going into the early Sunday morning hours, followed by feasting and breaking the Lenten fast. And then late Sunday morning or early after noon there is another service, after which there is more celebratory feasting.
Russian media reports that Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has instructed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to halt Russian military operations during the period; however, just like in past short truces Russia says it will respond immediately to any 'violations' observed.
Zelensky meanwhile confirmed that "Ukraine has repeatedly stated that we are ready for reciprocal steps. We proposed a ceasefire during the Easter holiday this year and will act accordingly."
"People need an Easter without threats and a real move towards peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to attacks even after Easter," he added.
Such a holiday truce has been tried in the past, but is typically marred by frontline 'violations' and tit-for-tat accusations and denunciations.
But this year, after well over four years of brutal fighting which has taken likely hundreds of thousands of lives, there is a good chance the Easter truce will hold given the sheer exhaustion and war-weariness on each side.
What's more is that if there is success, it could provide the basis for something more lasting, as both sides say they are still interested in hammering out a permanent end to the war. But for Moscow, this will require that Ukraine cede much of the east and give political recognition too, including over Crimea.
Iran makes clear Lebanon fighting must end or else Pakistan talks "meaningless" - as its delegation arrives in 'locked down' Pakistan.
Trump 'optimistic' a deal within reach - also as Israel-Lebanon talks scheduled in Washington next week. US delegation headed by Vance en route to Islamabad.
Lloyd's: "The Iranians are willing to negotiate with certain countries to secure voyages, but only on a case-by-case basis." A handful of mostly Iranian/China-linked tankers have passed in last 24 hours.
After days of search and rescue, Lebanon death toll stands at over 300 following the Wednesday 'surprise' Israeli strikes. Sporadic IDF attacks continue on south and east.
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Sporadic Fighting Persists in Lebanon
A big question remains: will Israel and Lebanon actually formally start the ceasefire negotiations that Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered his cabinet to prepare for? Negotiations are tentatively expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington. The massive Israeli strikes from earlier this week have threatened to derail the Iran ceasefire deal before it really gets off the ground.
Senior Iranian security sources suggests should Israel strike Beirut again, the US-Iran negotiations will be terminated: Press TV
For now, Israel has continued attacking Lebanon on Friday, also as Hezbollah has continued firing missiles on northern Israel. Wednesday saw some 70 rockets fired from Lebanon, after the earlier massive Israeli surprise attacks which killed over 300 Lebanese and over 1,150 wounded. There may be some ground fighting in the south too, amid ongoing IDF aerial attacks on southern Lebanon. Al Jazeera says that an Israeli airstrike hit the town of al-Tayri in southern Lebanon, and another targeted the town of Sahmar in the western Bekaa region of eastern Lebanon. Heavy Israeli strikes in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon have also been reported Friday.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has vowed in a statement carried by AI Mayadeen that the Iran-aligned group will "remain steadfast" as "resistance will continue until our last breath." He praised Hezbollah for thwarting a ground invasion, saying "the enemy was surprised by the methods of resistance, the flexibility of the Mujahideen movement, and their defensive capabilities." He vowed, "We will not accept a return to the previous situation, and we call on officials to stop offering free concessions," while denouncing the "bloody criminality on Wednesday."
Iranian Delegation Arrives in Pakistan
As the US and Iran prepare for talks in Pakistan, the Lebanon crisis is still a closely watched sticky issue which could escalate before it gets better. Pakistani media has reported that the Iranian delegation has arrived for negotiations, which are set to proceed Saturday, also pending the arrival of the US team headed by Vice President JD Vance - and including Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
US team headed by Vance en route to Pakistan...
However, there's been no official confirmed info about the arrival of Iranian Parliament Speaker and the Foreign Minister, but we can at least assume that Abbas Araghchi will be there in person. Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf is likely there too.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed/developing chatter of division within Iranian negotiating ranks:
THE IRGC COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AHMAD VAHIDI IS SEEKING TO CURB THE AUTHORITY OF MOHAMMAD BAGHER GHALIBAF AND FOREIGN MINISTER ABBAS ARAGHCHI IN THE TALKS. || VAHIDI HAS ALSO PUSHED FOR THE INCLUSION OF MOHAMMAD BAGHER ZOLGHADR, SECRETARY OF THE SUPREME NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, IN THE NEGOTIATING TEAM — A MOVE OPPOSED BY CURRENT MEMBERS, WHO CONSIDER HIM LACKING EXPERIENCE FOR STRATEGIC NEGOTIATIONS. - SOURCES
SENIOR IRANIAN OFFICIALS ARE LOCKED IN A DISPUTE OVER THE COMPOSITION AND AUTHORITY OF THE DELEGATION SET TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE UNITED STATES IN ISLAMABAD, ACCORDING TO INFORMATION RECEIVED BY IRAN INTERNATIONAL. - SOURCES
Islamabad is said to be under effective lockdown while hosting the high stakes summit. President Trump previously expressed concern over the security situation, related to sending Vance. One outlet observes, "Pakistan has ramped up security in Islamabad ahead of high-stakes direct talks between the United States and Iran, with the federal capital administration declaring a two-day public holiday on Thursday and Friday."
A Pakistani official has told The Guardian, "Our priority is that the talks go smoothly. We don't want to be seen as a spoiler. Our role is as a facilitator and mediator. We will leave it to both parties, Iran and the US, to share any developments with the media if they want."
Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has made clear Iran's position that any peace negotiations would be "meaningless" if they took place while Israeli bombs continue to fall on Lebanon.
Washington Post reports the Trump admin intends to request the release of Americans detained in Iran as part of the negotiations.
Hormuz Status Update: 'No Option' but to Negotiate Passage with Iran
As a reminder, President Trump has stated that Iran is "doing a very poor job" of allowing oil to flow through the Strait of Hormuz and warned Tehran against imposing tolls on vessels transiting the waterway. An Iranian lawmaker stated earlier that some ships are being charged as much as $2 million for passage through the strait.
Reuters highlights that the majority of ships that have sailed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past day were linked to Iran, per fresh tracking data. The majority of vessels, however, are still not risking passage with the waterway still under threat.
"Three tankers – a crude supertanker that can carry 2 million barrels of oil, a bunkering tanker and a smaller oil ship – all left Iranian waters in the past 24 hours, based on separate data analysis from Kpler and Lloyd’s List Intelligence platforms," Reuters notes. "Four dry bulk ships – including one that loaded iron ore from Iran bound for China – also sailed in the past day, the data shows."
On the evening of Islamabad talks, Iran holds the Hormuz leverage. "The Iranians are willing to negotiate with certain countries to secure voyages, but only on a case-by-case basis," said Bridget Diakun, a senior risk and compliance analyst at Lloyd’s List Intelligence, to the NY Times. "The Trump administration is forcing its allies to negotiate with Iran because there is no other option."
Apple is permanently closing three mall-based stores in the coming months: Apple North County in California, Apple Trumbull in Connecticut, and Apple Towson Town Center in Maryland, which is the company's first unionized store.
"Following the departure of several retailers and declining conditions at Trumbull Mall, the Shops at North County, and Towson Town Center, we've made the difficult decision to close our stores at these locations," Apple told computer blog AppleInsider in a statement.
Most workers will be transferred to nearby stores if they choose to remain with Apple, while unionized Towson employees will need to apply for open roles under the current bargaining agreement.
Apple wouldn't provide additional color on what exactly those "declining conditions" were, such as whether they involved a slowdown in foot traffic or thefts.
Focusing on the unionized Towson location, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reacted furiously to Apple's decision. The move suggests that Tim Cook has little interest in bending the knee to lefty union pressure.
APPLE STORE CLOSURES | Apple announced its closing 3 locations, inside malls or shopping plazas across the country, on Thursday. 1/3 locations is Towson Town Center. The union representing the workers in Towson says they’re outraged. Doors set to close on June 11. @wbaltv11pic.twitter.com/M9m3CZnqYQ
"The IAM Union is outraged by Apple's decision to close its Towson, Md., store — the first unionized Apple retail location in the United States — and abandon both its workers and a community that relies on it for critical services and its unique access to public transit," the union wrote in a statement to the outlet.
IAM continued:
Apple's claim that the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation is simply false and raises serious concerns that this closure is a cynical attempt to bust the union.
We are exploring all legal options and will work with elected officials and allies to hold Apple accountable. We stand with our IAM Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) members and the community that depends on this store for essential access and support."
Apple appears to be sending a very clear message to workers considering the union route: go down that path, and you may end up like the Towson store.
Apple TV will be accessible in the US later this month through Amazon's Prime Video as a $9.99 monthly add-on subscription. Users will have access to premium entertainment like Severance, Slow Horses, The Morning Show, as well as international blockbuster movies, and Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball sporting events.
"As we continue to expand our offering and make it easy for customers to personalize their streaming experience directly in one app, we are proud to welcome Apple TV and its popular and critically-acclaimed shows, films, and events to Prime Video," Senior Vice President and Head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios Mike Hopkins said.
Alibaba Groupconfirmedon Friday, in a newly created X account, that it was behind a mysterious AI video model that has ascended global leaderboards.
The "Happy Horse" video AI model sent ripples across China's AI industry this week, topping Artificial Analysis' global text-to-video leaderboard in anonymous form with an Elo score of 1379, surpassing ByteDance's Seedance 2.0, while its image-to-video score set a new historical record for the leaderboard.
HappyHorse is a model developed by Alibaba's ATH Business Group, currently in internal testing, with an API to be opened soon.
United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer said on Friday that the US has not resolved all trade issues with China, but that talks are in a "good situation" and that the Trump administration is "trying very hard" to deal with the remaining challenges. He conceded that China's dealings with Iran "obviously complicate" the US-China relations and said it is Beijing's responsibility to "eliminate any harmful ties" with Tehran.
In an interview with CNBC, Greer praised the administration's policies on manufacturing, but noted that it accounts for only around 10% of the US GDP, which he judged to be "too low." He added that the administration is in constant contact with automakers over the impact of the current energy crisis, but that it will not resort to "knee-jerk reactions" to short-term price changes.
CoreWeave announced a multi-year agreement on Friday to rent its data center capacity to support the deployment of AI start-up Anthropic's Claude assistant, adding to its expanding list ofbig-namecustomers.
"Under the agreement, Anthropic will use CoreWeave's cloud platform to run workloads at production scale, while benefitting from its industry-leading performance and reliability," the firms said in a press release. "With the addition of Anthropic, nine of the leading ten AI model providers now leverage CoreWeave's platform, reflecting the growing demand for infrastructure that can support AI at scale."
With the potential to grow over time, the partnership will first focus on a phased infrastructure roll-out.
