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Russians and Ukrainians meet in Turkey for first talks in 3 years

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Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul on Friday at their first direct peace talks in more than three years, under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Live television showed Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan addressing Russian and Ukrainian negotiators at the lavish Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus. Half of the Ukrainian delegation wore camouflage military fatigues, sitting at a table directly facing their Russian counterparts, who were in suits, Reuters reported.

Fidan said it was critical to achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible. He said he was happy to see the will of both sides to open a new window of opportunity for peace, and it was important that the Istanbul talks form the basis for a meeting between leaders of the two countries.

“There are two paths ahead of us: one road will take us on a process that will lead to peace, while the other will lead to more destruction and death. The sides will decide on their own, with their own will, which path they choose,” Fidan said.

The warring sides had not met face-to-face since March 2022, the month after Russia’s invasion.

Expectations for a major breakthrough, already low, were dented further on Thursday when Trump, winding up a Middle East tour, said there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The head of Ukraine’s delegation, setting out Kyiv’s priorities, said peace was only possible if Russia agreed to a 30-day ceasefire, the return of abducted Ukrainian children and an exchange of all prisoners of war.

Russia says it wants to end the war by diplomatic means and is ready to discuss a ceasefire. But it has raised a list of questions and concerns, saying Ukraine could use a pause to rest its forces, mobilise extra troops and acquire more western weapons.

Ukraine and its allies accuse Putin of stalling, and say he is not serious about wanting peace.

PUTIN STAYS AWAY

It was Putin who proposed the direct talks in Turkey, but he spurned a challenge from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet him there in person, instead sending a team of mid-level officials. Ukraine responded by naming negotiators of similar rank.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg were also in Istanbul, where a flurry of separate diplomatic contacts took place earlier on Friday.

Rubio told reporters on Thursday night that, based on the level of the negotiating teams, a major breakthrough was unlikely.

“I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m 100% wrong. I hope tomorrow the news says they’ve agreed to a ceasefire; they’ve agreed to enter serious negotiations. But I’m just giving you my assessment, honestly,” he said.

Russia said on Friday it had captured another village in its slow, grinding advance in eastern Ukraine. Minutes before the start of the Istanbul meeting, Ukrainian media reported an air alert and explosions in the city of Dnipro.

Russia says it sees the talks as a continuation of the negotiations that took place in the early weeks of the war in 2022, also in Istanbul.

But the terms under discussion then, when Ukraine was still reeling from Russia’s initial invasion, would be deeply disadvantageous to Kyiv. They included a demand by Moscow for large cuts to the size of Ukraine’s military.

Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Russian attempts to align the current talks with the unsuccessful earlier negotiations would fail.

With Russian forces now in control of close to a fifth of Ukraine, Putin has held fast to his longstanding demands for Kyiv to cede territory, abandon its NATO membership ambitions and become a neutral country.

Ukraine rejects these terms as tantamount to capitulation, and is seeking guarantees of its future security from world powers, especially the United States.

MUTUAL HOSTILITY

Ukraine repelled Russia’s initial assault on the capital Kyiv in 2022 and recaptured swathes of land seized by Russians in the war’s first year. But since then Russian forces have slowly but relentlessly advanced for most of the past two years.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been wounded or killed on both sides. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed, whole cities have been destroyed and millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.

Moscow says it was forced to mount its “special military operation” in response to NATO expansion and the prospect that the western alliance would admit Ukraine as a member and use it as a launchpad to attack Russia. Any settlement of the conflict must address these “root causes”, the Kremlin says.

Kyiv and its allies reject that as a false pretext for what they call an imperial-style land grab.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s army chief, said late on Thursday that Russia has about 640,000 troops in Ukraine at the moment and had “turned its aggression against Ukraine into a war of attrition”. He said there was active combat along the entire frontline, stretching many hundreds of miles.

 

World

US military operations killed 153 civilians in 2025, Pentagon assessment shows

A Pentagon report submitted to the U.S. Congress and published by U.S. media said all civilian deaths and injuries recorded in 2025 resulted from three U.S. strikes in Yemen.

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U.S. military operations killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others in 2025, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, citing Pentagon assessments.

According to Reuters, the figures represent a sharp increase from 2024, when Pentagon assessments recorded two civilian deaths and two injuries linked to U.S. military operations.

A Pentagon report submitted to the U.S. Congress and published by U.S. media said all civilian deaths and injuries recorded in 2025 resulted from three U.S. strikes in Yemen.

The report said the U.S. Central Command assessed that the three strikes carried out in April 2025 in Yemen “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm.

As of February 2026, the report said, 15 other incidents in Yemen were still being assessed by U.S. Central Command following reports received through non-governmental organizations.

The U.S. military says its operations in Yemen aim to degrade the capabilities of Iran-backed Houthi militants.

The Pentagon report did not include casualties from U.S. strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. It said that as of February 1, 2026, the U.S. Southern Command had assessed that no incidents in its area of responsibility in 2025 “more likely than not” resulted in civilian casualties.

The Trump administration has also carried out strikes on vessels it accuses of transporting narcotics in the Eastern Pacific, describing the targets as “narco-terrorists.” According to a Reuters tally based on death tolls published after each strike, more than 200 people have been killed in such operations since September 2025.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described the strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings, while the American Civil Liberties Union has called the Trump administration’s claims about those targeted “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”

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Trump took secret flight out of Turkey due to Iran threat, the Washington Post reports

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

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U.S. President Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard Air Force One, an extraordinary move prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington ​Post reported Monday.

Trump had taken the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but he unexpectedly used ‌an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane’s security, Reuters reported.

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

Before departing Ankara, Trump said on Truth ​Social that he would use an older baby blue Air Force One plane “for old time’s sake” to RAF Mildenhall in Britain while ​the new plane stopped at the same base so U.S. service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.

After Trump ⁠boarded the old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, he was secretly shuttled by an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, ​an Air Force C-32A, the Post reported citing a U.S. official familiar with the operation and corroborating material it reviewed.

The deception operation was triggered by ​a credible threat to Trump, the Post reported. A similar operation had taken place in 2000, when President Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan while sending his formal Air Force One as decoy.

On this occasion, the journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One, which was effectively ​used as a decoy, reported being advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed. The Post said aside from reporters, some ​White House staff also believed that the president was on board.

When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said ‌it was ⁠because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.” He went onto say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”

The C-32A carrying Trump flew to Britain and arrived at around 10:20 p.m. while the older Air Force One and media, arriving minutes later, the Post reported. It was not clear, the paper said, how Trump was moved from the C-32A back to the older Air Force One.

Trump’s traveling press pool reported he climbed down the stairs of the ​older Air Force One at 10:56 p.m. ​UK local time.

He gave press ⁠a peace sign but didn’t walk over to talk to them. He then spent some time greeting service members before walking to the new, Qatar-donated plane.

When asked for comment on the revelation of a secret flight on a ​third plane, the White House provided a statement from Communications Director Steve Cheung saying the Qatari-donated jet ​has been fitted with ⁠high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said. It was the same statement provided to the Post.

The ⁠Pentagon did ​not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new plane, with red, white, dark blue ​and gold livery chosen by Trump, is a Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar last year and refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies. It was intended to serve ​as a temporary placement while Boeing (BA.N) struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.

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More than 100 killed after strongest quake this century hits western Colombia

The U.S. Geological Survey said the ⁠7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.

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More than 100 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, toppling buildings, damaging hospitals and infrastructure and trapping people beneath the rubble in the country’s strongest earthquake this century.

The quake struck just ​days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June, Reuters reported.

“The ‌national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed,” he said in a national address around 1 p.m. local time, upon declaring a national state of emergency and giving a death toll of 111. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble.”

De La Espriella visited Quibdo, the capital of coastal Choco province, where he promised rent subsidies for those who have lost homes, and then traveled to Cali, western Colombia’s largest city.

Though he had ​been expected to give an updated national death toll on Monday evening, De La Espriella offered only figures for Valle del Cauca province, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there, while ​700 had been injured. Some local media have cited a national total of 132 deaths, though the origin of the figure is unclear.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the ⁠7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.

As night fell, rescue workers and volunteers with headlamps hurried to ​find people still trapped under rubble.

Authorities in Cali, Armenia and Manizales announced curfews, with Cali’s mayor saying threats of looting had forced him to deploy police and military personnel to the streets. De La Espriella promised 1,000 additional ​security personnel for the city.

Cali authorities said the Petronio Alvarez festival, an annual celebration of Pacific music which was due to start on Wednesday, has been postponed.

Video broadcast by Caracol Television showed a group of people pulling a small baby covered in dust from under a pile of rubble. Caracol reported the six-month-old girl and her mother were rescued from under a five-story building in Cali.

Video from Cali also showed rescue workers rappelling people out from the windows of a local hospital.

BUILDINGS CRUMBLE, AIRPORTS CLOSED

In the hard-hit ​city of Pereira, rescue workers told local television they were in contact with a young boy trapped under a bakery, and crane operators were working to remove badly damaged parts of buildings.

A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during ​the quake, according to Reuters-verified video, while footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city’s landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.

Reuters video showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveling debris by hand and ‌loading rubble into ⁠trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.

Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building. As he spoke to Reuters, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.

“They are alive,” he said. “We are making space so we can free them and get them out.”

Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident and rescue volunteer, said her group had helped seven people out of a fallen building but there were still four people and a dog trapped underneath.

“A moment ago there was scratching ​but now we can’t hear anything, we still have ​faith that the dog is alive and we ⁠can get these people out,” she said. “The more people lending a hand the better.”

Saul Paz, 69, a resident of a Cali residential complex that partially collapsed, told Reuters he had been in the dining room with his son and wife when the shaking began.

“I think if it had lasted five seconds more there would be nothing left,” ​he said. “There are people who went to bed last night with a house and a car and today they won’t have anything.”

Colombia’s civil aviation authority suspended operations ​at several airports in the ⁠region, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, while engineers carried out structural inspections.

RING OF FIRE

Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and records thousands of mostly minor earthquakes each month.

Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake’s powerful magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.

“This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn’t cause as much shaking. At this magnitude, it did ⁠actually cause a ​lot of shaking,” she said, adding Colombia is particularly difficult for seismologists to analyze due to the interaction of several major tectonic plates.

The ​Colombian Geological Service said it had recorded 21 aftershocks by late Monday and warned that additional tremors were likely.

Colombia’s coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly around Armenia and Pereira.

 

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