The worst possible moment for bringing Trevor Reed home turned out to be the best.

With U.S.-Russian relations at their lowest point in decades, it seemed an improbable time to hope for the release of Reed, a former Marine detained in Russia for almost three years. Yet this week the Biden administration completed the type of transaction it had earlier seemed resistant to, exchanging Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot and convicted drug trafficker serving a 20-year prison sentence in Connecticut.

The killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul sent an already tense and shaky relationship between Turkey and Saudi Arabia into complete free fall.

Fast-forward 3 1/2 years later and it appears Turkey and Saudi Arabia are attempting to build a bridge and move on.

Fears are growing over the fate of the May 15 parliamentary elections amid the latest security and political tensions in the country, a media report said on Wednesday.

“A political party is telling its members that there will be no elections on May 15 and that the beginning of May will be critical in this regard,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported.

From his surprise detention to an audacious escape from Japan hidden in an audio-equipment box, the rollercoaster saga of disgraced former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has grabbed headlines worldwide.

In the latest twist, France has issued an international arrest warrant for Ghosn over suspect payments worth more than 15 million euros ($16.3 million) between the Renault-Nissan alliance and Renault's dealer in Oman.

After winning another five years in the French presidential palace, Emmanuel Macron intends to go back to work straightaway on domestic and foreign policy — but he will soon face crucial parliamentary elections where he may struggle to keep his majority.

Here's a look at what comes next for Macron and his leadership of France.

Everyone worried this might happen.

In the weeks before a rare confluence of major Jewish, Christian and Muslim holidays, with tens of thousands of visitors expected in Jerusalem for the first time since the pandemic, Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders discussed how to calm tensions.

Europe is struggling to find ways to stop paying Russia $850 million a day for energy and hit the Kremlin's finances over its invasion of Ukraine. Leaders of the 27-member European Union are finding that reversing decades of dependence on Russian oil and natural gas is not a simple matter.

The EU is now discussing sanctions on Russian oil, including a possible boycott. Here is what such a move could mean for people in Europe and the rest of the world:

When Ghada Sabatien set out to visit her uncle in a village near Bethlehem, she was not expecting to be caught up in the spike in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

But the unarmed 45-year-old, who was partially sighted and understood little Hebrew, bled to death in the street after "mistakenly" being shot by an Israeli soldier.

Recent deadly attacks by Palestinians have shown a shift in the dynamics of militancy in the West Bank, as armed factions play less of a role and individual grievances trump ideology, analysts say.

At a bustling market in the Palestinian political headquarters of Ramallah, customers clamor to get their hands on the latest hot trend. 

With its ground troops forced to pull back in Ukraine and regroup, and its Black Sea flagship sunk, Russia's military failings are mounting. No country is paying closer attention than China to how a smaller and outgunned force has badly bloodied what was thought to be one of the world's most powerful armies.

China, like Russia, has been ambitiously reforming its Soviet-style military and experts say leader Xi Jinping will be carefully parsing the weaknesses exposed by the invasion of Ukraine as they might apply to his own People's Liberation Army and his designs on the self-governed island of Taiwan.