Spotlight
Turkish police on Wednesday arrested Istanbul's mayor — a popular opposition leader and key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — and several other prominent figures as part of investigations into alleged corruption and terror links. It was a dramatic escalation in an ongoing crackdown on the opposition and dissenting voices in Turkey.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said prosecutors issued warrants for the mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, and some 100 other people. Among those detained was Imamoglu's close aide, Murat Ongun.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a lengthy call Tuesday to an immediate pause in strikes against energy infrastructure in the Ukraine war, but the Russian leader stopped short of backing a broader 30-day pause in fighting that the U.S. administration is pressing for.
The White House described it as the first step in a "movement to peace" that it hopes will include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and eventually a full and lasting end to the fighting. But there was no indication that Putin has backed away from his conditions for a prospective peace deal, which are fiercely opposed by Kyiv. And shortly after the call ended, air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv, followed by explosions in the city. Local officials urged people to seek shelter.

A phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine has started and was going "well," the White House said Tuesday.
The call began at 1400 GMT and so far had continued almost an hour, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino said on X. "The call is going well, and still in progress," he said.

The U.S. deported hundreds of immigrants after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, using the sweeping powers of a centuries-old wartime law to target alleged members of a Venezuelan gang. The deportations over the weekend came as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring them.
The act gives allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge. Trump's Saturday proclamation called the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.

A ceasefire in Russia's 3-year-old war in Ukraine hinges on Moscow accepting the U.S. proposal of a 30-day pause in fighting as a confidence-building measure for both sides to hammer out a longer-term peace plan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will look to delay such a temporary truce with conditions meant to divert the peace process and lengthen the war. Ukraine, which faced pressure to accept the ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump blocked military aid and intelligence sharing, expects that he will threaten more sanctions on Moscow to push Putin into accepting the terms.

Peru's president declared a state of emergency in the capital Monday and ordered the deployment of soldiers to help police address a surge of violence, amid widespread outcry a day after the killing of a popular singer.
President Dina Boluarte's government published a decree saying that the state of emergency will last 30 days, and authorities will restrict some rights, including the freedom of assembly and movement. That means the police and the army would be able to detain people without a judicial order.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to speak by phone on Tuesday in a potentially crucial step toward halting the war in Ukraine, over three years into Moscow's invasion.

The UK government said Monday that a "significant number" of nations would provide troops to protect any ceasefire in Ukraine as part of a so-called coalition of the willing.
Britain expects "more than 30 countries" to contribute to the group in some form, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman told reporters.

For Volodymyr Zelensky, his Oval Office clash with Donald Trump was a stark demonstration of how important personal ties with Donald Trump will be to his chances of ending the war with Russia on acceptable terms.
Zelensky has scrambled to contain the damage in the two weeks since -- apologizing to Trump, thanking him and the American people for their aid, and bending to his call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday temporarily blocking the deportations, but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order.
