President Donald Trump has said his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been "fine-tuned" and he's sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials.

Trump suggested Tuesday he could eventually meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but not until further progress has been made in negotiations. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening aboard Air Force One, Trump said resolving the war was difficult, and described what had been a 28-point plan as a work in progress. "That was not a plan — it was a concept," Trump said.

Hospital officials in Gaza said Wednesday that Israel handed over 15 more Palestinian bodies, completing the latest swap of the ceasefire as the first phase of the agreement nears a conclusion and officials convened to discuss moving to the second.

It came a day after Palestinian militants returned the remains of Israeli hostage Dror Or, who the Israeli military says was killed by the militants in their Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Israel has agreed to return 15 Palestinian bodies for each hostage returned.

Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history's first American pope on the road.

Leo is fulfilling a trip Pope Francis planned to make, to mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church in Turkey. In Lebanon, he'll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community as well as Lebanese of all faiths who are still demanding justice over the 2020 Beirut port blast.

Ousmane Dembélé trained with his PSG teammates on Tuesday and could make his return from injury for the Champions League match against Tottenham this week.

The Ballon d'Or winner has not played since he was forced off injured midway through the first half of PSG's 2-1 home loss to Bayern Munich in the competition on Nov. 4

Two giant pandas were flying home from France to China for retirement on Tuesday, after the female was diagnosed with kidney failure, AFP journalists said.

Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi took off aboard a plane from the French capital's Charles de Gaulle airport, the journalists said, after more than a decade living in France and emotional goodbyes from visitors of the Beauval Zoo in the center of the country at the weekend.

As Pope Leo XIV prepares to embark on his first trip abroad with a visit to Turkey to mark a key event that shaped the foundations of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, there has been a surge of renewed optimism over the possible reopening of a Greek Orthodox religious seminary that has been closed since 1971.

The Halki Theological School has become a symbol of Orthodox heritage and a focal point in the push for religious freedoms in Turkey.

Lebanon is a country where crosses rise from mountaintops, rooftops and street corners, and Christian symbols are woven into everyday life. The upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV highlights the depth of Christianity's roots in this small Mediterranean nation, dating to the earliest days of the faith.

From Mount Lebanon's peaks to the coastal plain, ancient sites sit beside modern life, reflecting a landscape shaped by centuries of Christian presence. Lebanon's mosaic of 18 sects — including 12 Christian ones — makes it one of the region's most diverse societies, with a Maronite Christian traditionally serving as president.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France must not be "weak" faced with the threat from Russia, while emphasizing it had no intention of "sending our young people" to fight in the Ukraine war.

"We would be wrong to show weakness in the face of this threat. If we want to protect ourselves, we French -- which is my sole concern -- we must demonstrate that we are not weak against the power that threatens us the most," he told RTL radio in an interview.

Afghanistan's Taliban government on Tuesday accused Pakistan of launching overnight airstrikes in three eastern provinces, killing 10 civilians, including nine children, in a sign of worsening tensions between the two neighbors.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson for the Afghan government, said on X that Pakistan "bombed" the home of a civilian in Khost province, killing nine children and a woman. He said additional strikes were carried out in the provinces of Kunar and Paktika, injuring four others.

Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least six people in overnight strikes that hit city buildings and energy infrastructure, while a Ukrainian attack in southern Russia killed three people and damaged homes, authorities said.

The large-scale attacks come during a renewed U.S. push to end the war that has raged for nearly four years and talks about a U.S.-brokered peace plan. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with Russian officials for several hours in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.