Handout photo by Arda Kucukkaya/Turkish Foreign Ministry via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russia and Ukraine agreed to a prisoner exchange during peace talks in Turkey on Friday, which were led by a U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The two sides will conduct a 1,000 for 1,000 person prisoner exchange at a yet-to-be determined time, officials said.
Both sides also agreed to present their vision for a ceasefire, officials said.
Notably absent from Friday’s talks were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is in Albania, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in Moscow.
Ukrainian officials on Friday asked for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin; Russia officials said they would take the proposed meeting under advisement.
The Turkish foreign minister said Russia and Ukraine have agreed in principle to come together again after Friday’s talks in Istanbul, which lasted for 1 hour and 50 minutes.
President Donald Trump said Friday morning in Abu Dhabi that he wants to meet with Putin “as soon as we can set it up” to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
“We’re going to do it,” Trump said. “I actually think it’s time for us to do it.”
Trump suggested that “in two or three weeks” the world could be “a much, much safer place.”
“I will tell you that the world is a much safer place right now, and I think in two or three weeks we could have it be a much, much safer place,” Trump said. “We’re going to handle a couple of situations that you have here with some very serious situations. and we’re looking at Gaza, and we’ve got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people. There’s a lot of bad things going on.”
A Ukrainian diplomatic source in Istanbul has told ABC News that “we value President Trump’s genuine effort to end the war and stop the killing. Ukraine itself is the country that wants peace more than anyone else.”
“We’re going to get it done,” Trump said of Ukraine negotiations. “Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Activists are demanding an investigation after they say a humanitarian ship headed to Gaza was bombed by a drone in the Mediterranean Sea overnight Friday.
The passenger vessel Conscience made a mayday call shortly after midnight, reporting a fire on its bow, the government of Malta said.
The ship, located off the coast of Malta in international waters at the time, was being operated by activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which is campaigning to end Israel’s ongoing blockade of aid into Gaza.
Israel began the aid blockade on March 2 after the end of the temporary ceasefire deal, saying they were imposing the blockade to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Malta’s government said that 12 crew members and four civilian passengers were on board and none were injured.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the reported attack.
FFC spokesperson Yasemin Acar told ABC News in a video interview from Valletta, the capital of Malta, that most of those aboard were asleep when they awoke to the sound of an explosion, Acar said the vessel was struck twice “which why they knew they were under attack.”
The group claims the blasts were caused by a drone whose immediate origin the group did not know. ABC News has not been able to verify the group’s claims.
Video and photos provided by the FFC showed fire and smoke on board Conscience, as well as damage to the bow of the vessel in the aftermath of the reported attack.
ABC News showed the FCC photos showing the damaged sustained to the Conscience to Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordinance disposal specialist.
“The damage is consistent with two small blast munitions, which can be deployed by drone,” Ball said. “You’d need remnants to confirm that though, well as country of origin.”
Acar said the vessel had been carrying humanitarian aid, which Israel’s government is not allowing to enter Gaza.
In an online statement, the FFC called for an investigation into the reported attack and demanded that “Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.”
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. State Department for comment on the incident.
The moments after the reported strike are visible in ship tracking data from MarineTraffic. Shortly after midnight, the Conscience can be seen veering off its course. According to MarineTraffic, the vessel left Bizerte, Tunisia, on Wednesday and was scheduled to dock in Malta on Friday.
There, the FFC said, the vessel planned to bring aboard more passengers — including climate activist Greta Thunberg and retired US Army Colonel Mary Ann Wright — before continuing on to Gaza.
Data from online flight tracker ADSBExchange shows that a military transport plane operated by Israel’s military flew over Malta in the hours before the attack.
The Lockheed KC-130H plane entered Maltese airspace at around 3:25 p.m. local time. Data shows the plane flying in a zig-zag pattern around the eastern coast of Malta at an altitude as low as 4,350 feet before beginning its return to Israel at around 7:30 p.m. local time, nearly five hours before the reported attack on Conscience.
ABC News’ Dana Savir and Benjamin Siu contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration’s plan to accept a luxury jet donated by the Qatari government to use as Air Force One raises significant security concerns, intelligence experts and government officials say, as President Donald Trump said it would be “stupid” not to accept a free plane.
Trump on Monday defended the administration’s plans to receive a luxury jet donated by the Qatari government during remarks at the White House, calling the donation a “very nice gesture.”
“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But it was, I thought it was a great gesture,” he said.
Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed the move, arguing that using the plane as Air Force One would “pose immense counterintelligence risks by granting a foreign nation potential access to sensitive systems and communications.”
“This reckless disregard for national security and diplomatic propriety signals a dangerous willingness to barter American interests for personal gain,” Reed said in a statement Monday. “It is an affront to the office of the presidency and a betrayal of the trust placed in any U.S. leader to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty.”
Air Force One a ‘high-value target’
The primary aircraft used in the current Air Force One fleet includes two aging Boeing 747-200 jumbo jets that have been operational since 1990. Despite flying for more than 35 years, the current pair of Air Force One jets are considered some of the safest and secure aircraft in the world.
Many of the security features on the plane remain classified. It has anti-missile defenses or countermeasure systems to protect against surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, and the communication devices can also withstand the pulse of a nuclear blast. It is also outfitted with sophisticated communications capability to allow the president to securely run the country from the plane and protect him from cyberattacks.
“It’s designed to transport the president in a safe way and be able to withstand physical attacks, but to also ensure that the president maintains communication with military, his cabinet, other government leaders in a safe and secure manner,” said John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former acting Homeland Security official. “Any building or vehicle or airplane that the president is located is a high-value target for foreign intelligence services who want to gather as much information about the president.”
Air Force One can also remain in the air for several days due to its ability to refuel in midair. The plane also houses a small medical facility where doctors could perform surgery if needed.
All of these systems would likely need to be installed on the Boeing 747-8 that Trump would receive as a gift from Qatar.
A jet donated by Qatar would also be a “counterintelligence nightmare,” ABC News contributor Darrell Blocker, a former CIA field operative, said.
“If you go back to almost anything that is given by a foreign government, there are regulations and restrictions and guidelines for ensuring that they’re not being bugged, and a plane would be an absolute nightmare to be able to confirm that it’s not,” Blocker told ABC News Live on Monday. “From an intelligence perspective, it’s not the brightest move.”
Blocker cited that when the U.S. embassy was being built in Moscow in the 1980s, the U.S. had to “take it down to its bare bones” because the Russians “put bugs through every room, every facility.”
“I think the people of Troy, when they accepted that horse, regretted it after the fact also,” he said.
The complexity and time needed to retrofit and inspect the plane raise questions on cost and a timeline.
“Even under the best of circumstances, it’s going to take a significant effort for the military to be satisfied that the aircraft is constructed safely, that it’s not compromised from the standpoint of intelligence collection capabilities being planted on it, and that it is built in a way that it will be able to assimilate the sensitive communications and countermeasure capabilities that are that are present on any plane that’s Air Force One,” Cohen said. “To be done right, it’s not going to happen quickly.”
“In order to adequately ensure that this airplane — which was operated by a foreign government that happens to have a relationship with Iran and China and Russia — in order to ensure that that plane has not had collection capabilities introduced into it when it was constructed, they’re gonna have to basically tear it down to the airframe,” he added.
White House working on ‘legal details’
ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment on the security concerns and has not yet received a response.
Both the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense referred questions to the White House when asked about the possible transfer of the Qatari-owned Boeing 747 to the Department of Defense.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he would not comment on Trump preparing to receive the jet from Qatar because he hasn’t seen the “details.”
The White House is working on the “legal details” of the Qatari government’s donation to the Defense Department, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday in an appearance on Fox News.
“But, of course, any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law. And we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency and we will continue to do that,” Leavitt added.
Trump said during remarks at the White House on Monday that he doesn’t plan to use the plane after he leaves office. Pressed by ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott on what he would say to people who view the luxury plane as a personal gift to him, Trump said it was not a gift to him but “a gift to the Department of Defense.”
Sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News that the plane would be a gift that is to be available for use by Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation.
If a private contractor were able to complete the modifications needed to the donated plane before the end of Trump’s presidency, many of the systems installed would then need to be removed should the Trump presidential library foundation take possession of the plane upon Trump leaving office due to the sensitive nature of the technology.
Ultimately, Cohen said he suspects that members of the intelligence community and the military will assess the risk to national security and “the level of effort to minimize the risk to national security.”
“If they’re doing their job, the president’s national security team will explain to him the level of risk that exists if a foreign intelligence service were able to introduce collection capabilities that could intercept face-to-face communications on the plane, electronic communications coming from the plane,” Cohen said. “They should also be explaining to him the level of effort that it will involve in order for that risk to be mitigated. And with that information, he can then make an informed decision on whether and under what conditions to accept the airplane.”
(LONDON) — A fire at an electrical substation near London’s Heathrow Airport has closed one of the world’s busiest airports.
Heathrow Airport said the fire at the substation, which supplies power to the airport, has caused a “significant power outage” and the airport is expected to be closed until 11:59 p.m. local time on Friday night.
In total, 70 firefighters and 10 fire trucks responded to the blaze in west London when the London Fire Brigade brigade was first called at 11:23 p.m. local time. The fire was out more than seven hours later at 06:28 a.m. Friday morning.
“This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said. “Thanks to their efforts and coordinated multi-agency response, we successfully contained the fire and prevented further spread. “We will maintain a presence at the scene throughout the day, assisting the National Grid as they assess the site.”
Firefighters safely evacuated 29 people from neighboring properties and, as a precaution, a 200-meter cordon was established with around 150 people evacuated.
“Due to the significant smoke, we strongly advise local residents to keep their windows and doors closed, as some smoke will remain for a number of hours today. Scientific advisors will also be on-site this morning to conduct further assessments and monitor the air quality,” Goulbourne continued. “Our Control Officers handled more than 200 emergency calls, providing guidance and reassurance to the public. As the morning progresses, disruption is expected to continue, and we urge people to avoid the area whenever possible.”
Counter-terror police were on the scene at the Hayes substation, London’s Met Police confirmed to ABC News, but they cautioned it’s only because they could get the investigation done faster.
“We are working with the London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of the fire which remains under investigation. While there is currently no indication of foul play we retain an open mind at this time,” Met Police said in a statement. “Given the location of the sub-station and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command is now leading enquiries.”
British Airways, which has a hub at Heathrow Airport, said it is advising travelers not to go to the airport and that they are working to notify passengers of their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, inbound flights to Heathrow are being redirected to other U.K. airports, officials said.
“Due to a power outage in the London Heathrow area, London Heathrow Airport is currently closed,” British Airways said. “As a result, customers due to travel from Heathrow on Friday are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice. This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond.”
The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large numbers of homes and businesses and led to some evacuations, the fire brigade said. Firefighters led 29 people to safety from neighboring properties and, as a precaution, established a cordon around the area and evacuated about 150 people.
“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” Pat Goulbourne, assistant commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said in a statement shortly before 2 a.m. local time.
The cause of the fire is not yet known, the fire brigade said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
