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.
Photo by Georg Wendt/picture alliance via Getty Images
(HAMBURG, GERMANY) — At least 12 people were injured, including three critically, in a stabbing attack at a train station in Germany on Friday, authorities said.
The suspect in the stabbing — a 39-year-old woman — has been arrested, police said.
The incident occurred at a train station in Hamburg. A knife was used in the attack, police said.
Police have not publicly identified the suspect. She is believed to have acted alone, according to Hamburg police, who said they are investigating her background. Police believe she may have been in “mental distress.”
“So far, we have no evidence that the woman could have acted with political motivation,” Hamburg police spokesperson Florian Abbenseth told reporters. “Rather, we have findings on the basis of which we are now investigating in particular whether she may have been in a state of mental distress.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(VATICAN CITY) — The Catholic Church has a new pope.
American Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected the 267th pontiff. He has chosen the name Leo XIV, a senior cardinal deacon announced.
The 69-year-old Chicago native is the first American pope and is seen as a diplomat in the church.
Following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, the 133 cardinals — the church’s highest-ranking clergy — gathered to elect a new pope for the Catholic Church in the secret conclave in Rome.
On Thursday afternoon local time, white smoke billowed from the stovetop chimney atop the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out, signifying the cardinals had elected a new pope. The cardinals cast at least four ballots at the Vatican before a cardinal received at least two-thirds of the vote.
Over an hour after the white smoke emerged, the new pope, clad in his papal vestments, stepped out onto the balcony and greeted the world. Pope Leo delivered his first Apostolic Urbi et Orbi blessing — meaning to “the city and the world.”
His full authority and jurisdiction begins immediately upon his acceptance of the office, prior to the public announcement.
Significance of papal name
Leo is the fifth-most-popular name chosen by popes.
Leo XIII was a founding figure of the Catholic social justice tradition.
While popes aren’t obliged to change their name, every pontiff for the past 470 years has done so, usually choosing the name of a predecessor to both honor them and signal their intention to emulate his example. Pope Francis was a notable exception, choosing not the name of a former pope but that of St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th century cleric and patron saint of animals and the environment.
Seen as front-runner
Pope Leo started to emerge as a front-runner for the papacy in the days before the conclave began, according to Father James Martin, a papal contributor to ABC News.
He was the only U.S. cardinal on a short list of front-runners for pope, also known as “papabiles,” compiled in the aftermath of Pope Francis’ death by The Associated Press.
He received priestly ordination on June 19, 1982, after studying canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University, according to his bio on the Vatican Press website.
Francis brought Pope Leo to work at the Vatican after first appointing him in 2014 to serve as the bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. He has spent a majority of his time in Peru, where he has also worked as a teacher, missionary and parish priest.
In April 2020, Francis appointed him to be the apostolic administrator of the diocese of Callao, also in Peru, his profile said.
Since 2023, he has held the position at the Vatican as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, in charge of vetting nominations for bishops around the world.
Pope Leo told Vatican News in October 2024 that a “bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom, but rather called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them and to suffer with them.”
He also currently serves as the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
In a 2023 interview with the Catholic News Service, he was asked how he responds to problems with bishops or dioceses — to which he said he reminds clergymen to reflect on their oath to “live and work in communion with the Holy Father.”
“The spirit of synodality includes a need and desire to listen to not only the bishop himself, but to many people in the diocese to see what’s the best way to promote authentic church in each and every diocese in the world,” he said at the time.
(LONDON) — Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of graphic violence.
Aid distribution through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites (GHF) resumed at two sites in Rafah, Gaza, on Thursday, the group said.
One of the sites, which has been used by GHF previously, is now closed after distribution was finished for the day, the U.S.-backed group said. The second site is a new one that is located 1 kilometer away and will open at 2:15 p.m. local time, according to the GHF.
Aid in Gaza was paused after several people died and were injured trying to reach the sites to obtain food, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, eyewitness reports on the ground and international aid organizations working in Gaza.
Palestinians described harrowing scenes of bullets flying and people dying around them as they tried to get aid with a famine looming in Gaza.
The U.S.- and Israel-backed GHF suspended distribution of aid in Gaza on Wednesday after a deadly shooting left at least 27 people dead and more than 90 others injured on Tuesday while people were trying to reach one of the distribution sites in southern Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, eyewitnesses on the ground in Gaza and the International Committee of the Red Cross working on the ground in Gaza.
The GHF asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to “enhance its security measures beyond the perimeter,” “develop clearer guidance” and “enhance IDF force training to support safety,” a GHF source told ABC News on Wednesday.
The newly established food distribution centers, constructed last month according to satellite imagery obtained and reviewed by ABC News, in southern Gaza have been overrun since they opened last week, with thousands of Palestinians in search of food and medicine following Israel’s partial lifting of the 11-week blockade of aid, according to aid groups.
The Israeli government imposed an 11-week blockade on all humanitarian aid entering Gaza on March 2, after the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended. The Israeli government said the blockade was put in place to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages being held in Gaza.
One Palestinian who was injured trying to get flour at one of the sites said he was “surprised to find bullets hitting us,” when he went in search of food.
“I went to get some flour — only flour. Just a kilo or two of flour for our home. We were surprised to find bullets hitting us. Even lying on the ground bullets were still hitting us,” Kamel Muhanna, a Palestinian who was injured while attempting to receive aid in Rafah, told ABC News.
Muhanna described people dying around him while he was near the aid distribution site trying to get food. Those whose family members were with them collected their bodies, but those who did not remained on the ground, he said.
“The bullet passed through the head of the young man in front of me and then hit me. There were like 100 in front of me and I still got hit,” Muhanna said. “If the bullet hadn’t killed the young man in front of me, it would have taken off my arm.”
Dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were injured in two events in the last week, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross working on the ground in Gaza.
Nasser NaserAllah, a Palestinian who was being treated inside Nasser Hospital, told ABC News the aid “is like a trap.”
“If there wasn’t aid, fewer people would have died,” he said. “They killed women, children [there was] blood on the ground everywhere — huge tragedies.”
The IDF acknowledged they “carried out warning fire approximately half a kilometer from the aid distribution center, targeting a few individuals who were approaching in a way that posed a security threat,” in a video statement given in English by IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they have responded to five incidents, four of which had occurred in the previous 96 hours.
The majority of victims suffered gunshot wounds, and “all responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site,” the ICRC said.
The GHF said it closed the distribution sites Wednesday for “preparations and staging” to prepare for the large number of people it expects to arrive.
“We did not expect 15,000 per hour,” the GHF said in the statement.
At the same time, the GHF said in a statement to media Tuesday they have distributed approximately 7 million meals in Gaza since they began operating last week.
The GHF also said they distributed 21 truckloads of food, totaling 20,160 boxes providing approximately 1,159,200 meals to Palestinians on Tuesday morning.
Established international aid groups operating inside Gaza — including Amnesty International and the ICRC — and the United Nations have criticized the U.S.-backed aid distribution plan, saying it is militarized and negates the neutrality of international humanitarian work.
NaserAllah claimed that the situation goes beyond hunger.
“People are living in famine,” he said.
Gaza’s entire population is experiencing critical levels of hunger, according to a report released last month. Gaza’s 2.1 million residents will face a “crisis” level of food insecurity — or worse — through the end of September, according to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership report.
He also noted that people are forced to go to the aid distribution areas despite the risks.
“A week ago, my cousin Ibn Hassoonah, went to the aid station. They shot him dead [but we still go] because of the severity of the hunger,” he said. “If they don’t die from bullets, they die from hunger.”
