World Briefing: March 24, 2025
U.S. and Russian negotiators on Monday sat down for talks in Saudi Arabia on a partial ceasefire in Ukraine, hours after a round of negotiations between U.S. and Ukrainian delegations, Russian news reports said. The state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies said the negotiations had begun in the capital Riyadh. The meeting is expected to be followed by another contact between U.S. and Ukrainian teams. The separate meetings are set to discuss details of a pause in long-range attacks from both Russia and Ukraine against energy facilities and civilian infrastructure, as well as a halt on attacks in the Black Sea to ensure safe commercial shipping. Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, but the parties have offered different views of what targets would be off-limits to attack and accused each other of undermining efforts to reach a pause.
Watch the CNN Early Start interview below that was broadcast this morning. Live from Odesa, I explained to anchor Rahel Soloman that Moscow is prioritizing the track to restore bilateral relations with Washington and to obtain sanctions relief , rather than a secondary track of a securing a long-lasting peace deal for Ukraine.
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza continues with at least 21 Palestinians killed in attacks across the Strip since the early hours, medical sources told Al Jazeera. The renewed assault comes hours after Israeli forces bombed the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, killing at least two people, including Hamas leader Ismail Barhoum. Amid the escalation in fighting and evacuation orders, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that the death toll in the enclave since the war started had surpassed 50,000 people — including 39 people killed in Israeli bombardments over the past day. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, The New York Times reported.
Of Israel’s recent strikes in Gaza, ostensibly to eliminate top Hamas leadership figures, little has come of it, writes Nurit Yohanan, The Times of Israel's Palestinian and Arab world correspondent. “There are no senior figures from Hamas’s military wing, the group actively conducting the war and holding Israeli hostages, among those publicly named as having been eliminated. Reports based on Israeli sources indicate that Hamas’s military leadership used the ceasefire to reorganize its forces. It can be assumed that Israel has been trying to target senior military figures, apparently without success.”
As you may have gathered from the reporting above, things are going anything but swell for the Trump Administration in the Middle East. It seems that his pledges to bring peace to Gaza and to the Ukraine-Russia war - being negotiated in the desert in Saudi Arabia - are in quick sand. In fact, Trump’s Middle East envoy has admitted that he may have been “duped” by Hamas in peace negotiations. Steve Witkoff made the admission during an interview with Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday - according to The Daily Beast. Just moments after he referenced negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine and said he takes Russia’s Vladimir Putin “at his word,” Witkoff explained that he thought a peace deal between the Islamist militant movement and Israel had been close at one point. “I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that is just me getting duped,” Witkoff admitted. “But I thought we were there. And evidently we weren’t. This is on Hamas.”
The Turkish government says 1,133 people have been arrested in five days of protests across the country. It says people have been "abusing" the right to protest, and warns that "terrorising the streets" will not be tolerated. At least 10 journalists have been detained in the cities of Istanbul and Izmir during dawn raids by Turkish police. The AFP news agency reports that among the 10 arrested is one of its photographer who was arrested in his home. Protests began when Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu - an opponent of President Erdogan - was detained on Wednesday on corruption charges. Imamoglu says the charges are politically motivated, something Erdogan denies. Turkey's presidential election is not scheduled until 2028 - Imamoglu was on Monday confirmed as his party's candidate, after a symbolic primary vote - BBC
Turkey banned short selling across all stocks and eased share buyback rules to prevent further losses in the country after the benchmark index plunged last week. The new rules were announced late on Sunday and will continue to remain in effect until the end of trading session on April 25, Turkey’s markets regulator Capital Markets Board of Türkiye said. The new restrictions broaden a previous ban that limited short-selling to only the top-50 listed companies - The National Newspaper
Relations between Greenland and the United States sank further on Sunday as the Greenlandic prime minister erupted over what he called a “highly aggressive” delegation of senior officials the Trump administration said it would send to the island this week. Usha Vance, the second lady, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, are among the officials headed to the island, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, though President Trump has vowed to make it part of the United States “one way or the other.” Ms. Vance is scheduled to make a series of cultural stops after her arrival on Thursday, separate from Mr. Waltz. The national security adviser is supposed to be traveling earlier in the week with the U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright. The prime minister, Mute B. Egede, said on Sunday that Greenlanders’ effort to be diplomatic just “bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.” He made the remarks, his angriest yet, to a Greenlandic newspaper on Sunday, and a high-ranking member of his party confirmed them. The prime minister seemed especially upset with Mr. Waltz’s involvement. “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland?” he asked. “The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.” He added: “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase,” he added. Other Greenlandic officials complained about the inopportune timing of the visit, pointing out that Greenland had just held parliamentary elections and that a new government has not even been formed. “The fact that the Americans are well aware we are in the middle of negotiations,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of the most popular political party, “once again shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.” - NYT
Canadian Liberal Leader Mark Carney yesterday announced a federal election for April 28 and outlined his vision for nation building and countering U.S. tariff and annexation threats. “We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetime because of President Donald Trump’s unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty,” Carney, the first prime minister to have never had held elective office, said after visiting the Governor General to ask for the dissolution of Parliament. Recent polls show the ruling Liberals in a dead heat with the opposition Conservative Party. As recently as two months ago, the Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre was ahead by double digits. But the removal of Justin Trudeau from the leadership of the Liberals and the widening perception among Canadians that Carney, a former central banker, is best suited to face off with Trump has boosted the party’s popularity.
Former Russian deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov appeared in court on Monday at the start of a high-profile embezzlement trial that could see him jailed for years. Ivanov, formerly in charge of Russian military construction projects, was arrested in April 2024 amid a wider crackdown on generals and military leaders suspected of corruption. Russia has prosecuted more than a dozen military officials and defence sector workers since last year -- a crackdown on senior figures accused of siphoning off for personal gain vast amounts of money allocated for major projects. Prosecutors have accused Ivanov of stealing 3.2 billion rubles ($38.3 million) from Moscow-based bank Intercommerz, which collapsed in 2016, and over 200 million rubles while procuring two ferries to serve Crimea. The hearing began on Monday morning at Moscow City Court, according to an AFP reporter. Ivanov is being tried alongside Anton Filatov, the former director of state defence corporation Oboronlogistika, which is owned by the defence ministry. Both men proclaim their innocence - AFP
The chief executive of the UK’s National Grid has claimed that Heathrow Airport had enough power from other substations despite Friday's shutdown, Sky News reported. Around 1,300 flights were affected after a fire knocked out an electricity substation in Hayes on Thursday evening. Operations were not able to resume until Friday evening. John Pettigrew from National Grid said there were two other substations "always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power". In his first comments since the disruption, Mr Pettigrew told the Financial Times: "There was no lack of capacity from the substations."Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow." He added: "Losing a substation is a unique event - but there were two others available. So that is a level of resilience." Heathrow has denied that it could have avoided a total shutdown.
