
Trump and Putin speak in high-stakes call
CBSN
Washington—President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are speaking by phone Tuesday morning as the U.S. tries to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine three years after Russia's invasion.
White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino posted on X at 10:54 a.m. Tuesday that the call began at 10 a.m., and was ongoing.
"The call is going well, and still in progress," Scavino wrote.

Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in captivity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office cast doubt on the offer, accusing the U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist group of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

One of China's biggest restaurant chains has promised to refund thousands of customers after video of a customer urinating into a simmering hotpot went viral online, triggering a public outcry. The clip, recorded last month, appears to show a young man standing on a table at a branch of the Haidilao restaurant chain in Shanghai urinating into a vat of boiling broth.

In August 2021, Tamim Satari raced to the Kabul International Airport to evacuate Afghanistan after working with the American military as an intelligence officer, helping U.S. forces coordinate aerial bomb campaigns against the Taliban. But in the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal, his wife and newborn son were left behind.

It's a confusing time for American diplomacy. After yesterday's meeting in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. appeared on Tuesday to be back in Ukraine's corner — and calling on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in the war it started more than three years ago. It remained entirely unclear on Wednesday, however, whether Vladimir Putin might agree to a temporary ceasefire. His forces currently have the momentum on the battlefield but, like Ukraine, Russia is thought to have suffered hundreds of thousands of military casualties.

Quetta, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces were battling hundreds of separatist militants holding roughly 300 hostages Wednesday on a train they hijacked in the country's remote southwest, officials said. At least 30 of the militants had been killed, security officials said, while about 190 of the roughly 450 passengers initially on the train had been rescued.