Russia's Putin proposes direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, 'without preconditions'

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed restarting direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, “without preconditions," an offer that came in response to Ukraine and its allies urging Moscow to commit to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face additional sanctions.

Putin referenced the unsuccessful 2022 peace talks that took place in Istanbul in March, shortly after Moscow's full-scale invasion, and proposed "restarting" them without preconditions in remarks to reporters in the early hours of Sunday.

“We are committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine," Putin said, adding that he doesn't rule out agreeing to a ceasefire later, in the course of direct talks with Ukraine.

Putin's proposal came after leaders from four major European countries threatened to ratchet up pressure on Moscow if it does not accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine that they offered on Saturday in a strong show of unity with Kyiv.

The leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland said their proposal for a ceasefire to start on Monday was supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, whom they had briefed over the phone earlier in the day.

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India and Pakistan accuse each other of violating ceasefire hours after reaching deal

ISLAMABAD (AP) — India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire Saturday after U.S.-led talks to end the most serious military confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals in decades but accused each other of violating the deal just hours later.

The ceasefire had been expected to bring a swift end to weeks of escalating clashes, including missile and drone strikes, triggered by the mass shooting of tourists last month that India blames on Pakistan, which denies the charge. But multiple explosions were heard in two large cities of Indian-controlled Kashmir hours after the countries agreed to the deal.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said late Saturday that “there had been repeated violations of the understanding arrived between the two countries” and accused Pakistan of breaching the agreement.

“We call upon Pakistan to take appropriate steps to address these violations and deal with the situation with seriousness and responsibility,” he said at a news conference in New Delhi. Misri said the Indian army was “retaliating” for what he called a “border intrusion.”

In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry blamed Indian forces for initiating the ceasefire violation. The ministry said Pakistan remains committed to the agreement and its forces were handling the situation with responsibility and restraint.

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US-China tariff talks to continue Sunday, an official tells AP, as Trump touts 'great progress made'

GENEVA (AP) — President Donald Trump said “great progress” was being made in ongoing U.S.-China talks over tariffs menacing the global economy, and even suggested a “total reset" was on the table as tariff negotiations are set to continue Sunday in Switzerland.

No major breakthrough was announced in discussions that lasted over 10 hours between U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and a delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. Still, Trump struck an upbeat tone.

“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland. Many things discussed, much agreed to. A total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!”

He gave no further details, and officials at the White House also offered little information during and after the opening day of discussions.

Trump's post followed an official telling The Associated Press that talks would continue Sunday. The official requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, which could help stabilize world markets roiled by the U.S.-China standoff. They've been shrouded in secrecy, and neither side made comments to reporters as they left.

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Israeli airstrikes kill 23 in Gaza as outcry over aid blockade grows

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City (AP) — Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza, including three children and their parents whose tent was bombed in Gaza City, health officials said.

The bombardment continued as international warnings grow over Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza as Israel's blockade on the territory of over 2 million people is in its third month.

The U.N. and aid groups have rejected Israel’s aid distribution moves, including a plan from a group of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials calling itself the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Among the 23 bodies brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours were those of the family of five whose tent was struck in Gaza City’s Sabra district, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

Another Israeli strike late Friday hit a warehouse belonging to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, in the northern area of Jabaliya. Four people were killed, according to the Indonesian Hospital, where bodies were taken.

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Turkish Tufts University student back in Boston after release from Louisiana detention center

BOSTON (AP) — A Tufts University student from Turkey returned to Boston on Saturday, one day after being released from a Louisiana immigration detention center where she was held for over six weeks.

Upon arrival at Logan Airport, Rumeysa Ozturk told reporters she was excited to get back to her studies during what has been a “very difficult” period.

“In the last 45 days, I lost both my freedom and also my education during a crucial time for my doctoral studies,” she said. “But I am so grateful for all the support, kindness and care.”

A federal judge ordered Ozturk’s release Friday pending a final decision on her claim that she was illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza.

Ozturk said she will continue her case in the courts, adding, “I have faith in the American system of justice.”

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Newark mayor denies trespassing at immigration detention center following arrest

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Saturday denied trespassing at a new federal immigration detention center during a confrontation that led to his arrest while the Democrat was at the facility with three members of Congress.

Baraka, who has been protesting the center’s opening this week, was released around 8 p.m. Friday after spending several hours in custody. He was accused of trespassing and ignoring warnings to leave the Delaney Hall facility.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for public affairs with the Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview with CNN on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing, and the department also released more video of the confrontation. McLaughlin also accused Baraka, who is seeking his party's nomination for governor, of playing “political games."

“I'm shocked by all the lies that were told here,” Baraka said, who said he had been invited there for a press conference. “No one else arrested, I was invited in, then they arrested me on the sidewalk.”

Baraka, who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration. He has aggressively pushed back against the construction and opening of the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.

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Trump team mulls suspending the constitutional right of habeas corpus to speed deportations. Can it?

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says President Donald Trump is looking for ways to expand its legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, he says the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government.

Such a move would be aimed at migrants as part of the Republican president's broader crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The Constitution is clear, and that of course is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,” Miller told reporters outside the White House on Friday.

“So, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at," Miller said. “Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”

The Latin term means “that you have the body." Federal courts use a writ of habeas corpus to bring a prisoner before a neutral judge to determine if imprisonment is legal.

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Pope Leo XIV lays out vision of papacy and identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue with some of the core priorities of Pope Francis.

But in a sign he was making the papacy very much his own, Leo made his first outing since his election, traveling to a sanctuary south of Rome that is dedicated to the Madonna and is of particular significance to his Augustinian order and his namesake, Pope Leo XIII.

Townspeople of Genazzano gathered in the square outside the main church housing the Madre del Buon Consiglio (Mother of Good Counsel) sanctuary as Leo arrived and greeted them. The sanctuary, which is managed by Augustinian friars, has been a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century and the previous Pope Leo elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded the adjacent convent in the early 1900s.

After praying in the church, Leo greeted the townspeople and told them they had both a gift and a responsibility in having the Madonna in their midst. He offered a blessing and then got back into the passenger seat of the car, a black Volkswagen. En route back to the Vatican, he stopped to pray at Francis' tomb at St. Mary Major Basilica.

The after-lunch outing came after Leo presided over his first formal audience, with the cardinals who elected him pope. In it Leo repeatedly cited Francis and the Argentine pope's own 2013 mission statement, making clear a commitment to making the Catholic Church more inclusive and attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the "least and rejected.”

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Experts call Kennedy's plan to find autism's cause unrealistic

WASHINGTON (AP) — For many experts, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ’s promise for “pulling back the curtain” to find autism's causes in a few months is jarring — and unrealistic.

That’s because it appears to ignore decades of science linking about 200 genes that play a role — and the quest to understand differences inside the brain that can be present at birth.

“Virtually all the evidence in the field suggests whatever the causes of autism — and there’s going to be multiple causes, it’s not going to be a single cause — they all affect how the fetal brain develops,” said longtime autism researcher David Amaral of the UC Davis MIND Institute.

“Even though we may not see the behaviors associated with autism until a child is 2 or 3 years old, the biological changes have already taken place,” he said.

Kennedy on Wednesday announced the National Institutes of Health would create a new database “to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases” by merging Medicaid and Medicare insurance claims with electronic medical records and other data. He has cited rising autism rates as evidence of an epidemic of a “preventable disease” caused by some sort of environmental exposure and has promised “some of the answers by September.”

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Five fishermen who spent 55 days adrift at sea arrive in the Galapagos Islands after rescue

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Five fishermen who spent 55 days adrift at sea arrived Saturday at a port in the Galapagos Islands after being rescued by a tuna boat, the Ecuadorian navy said on X.

The three Peruvians and two Colombians had been missing since mid-March and were found on May 7 by an Ecuadorian boat called Aldo.

The fishermen had reported damage to the boat’s alternator two days after setting sail from Pucusana Bay, to the south of Peru’s capital Lima, the navy said in a separate post on Friday.

The failure caused communication and navigation tools to malfunction, Ecuadorian navy Frigate Capt. Maria Fares told The Associated Press, adding that they had no power on the boat.

“They had no starter, lights and everything that a battery generates,” she said. To survive, they had to “take rusted water out of the engine (and) when a fish passed by, they caught it and parboiled it to eat.” Fares added that they also drank rain and sea water to survive.

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