Russian and U.S. diplomats held talks in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss normalizing the operation of their respective embassies after years expelling each others' diplomats.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the talks in Istanbul followed an understanding reached during President Donald Trump's call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and talks between top Russian and U.S. diplomats and other senior officials in Saudi Arabia.

Over the last five years, European Union countries have been forced to adapt to unprecedented circumstances. They pulled together to purchase tens of millions of vaccines and devised an innovative debt financing scheme to resuscitate their COVID-19-ravaged economies.

After President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine three years ago, Russia restricted the flow of natural gas to weaken Western support for Kyiv. In response, the 27 EU nations weaned themselves off a dependency on Russian energy in record time.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit the White House on Thursday to try to convince President Donald Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine will endure only if Kyiv and European leaders are at the table as negotiations move forward with Moscow.

Starmer's trip, coming a few days after French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron's own visit, reflects the mounting concern felt by much of Europe that Trump's aggressive push to find an end to Russia's war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede too much to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

French Finance Minister Eric Lombard told AFP on Thursday that the European Union would "do the same" if the United States maintains 25 percent tariffs announced by President Donald Trump.

"It is clear that if the Americans maintain the tariff hikes, as President Trump announced, the EU will do the same," Lombard said on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting in Cape Town.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to start selling a "gold card" visa with a potential pathway to U.S. citizenship for $5 million, seeking to have that new initiative replace a 35-year-old visa program for investors.

"I happen to think it'll sell like crazy. It's a market," Trump said. "But we'll know very soon."

A private company launched another lunar lander Wednesday, aiming to get closer to the moon's south pole this time with a drone that will hop into a jet-black crater that never sees the sun.

Intuitive Machines' lander, named Athena, caught a lift with SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It's taking a fast track to the moon — with a landing on March 6 — while hoping to avoid the fate of its predecessor, which tipped over at touchdown.

Thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development workers who have been fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration's dismantling of the agency are being given a brief window Thursday and Friday to clear out their workspaces.

USAID placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday. That was joined by a "reduction in force" that will affect another 1,600 employees, a State Department spokesman said in an emailed response to questions.

France is also seeking access to Ukraine 's deposits of critical minerals, with negotiations already underway for months, the French defense minister said Thursday, indicating that the United States isn't the only player.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected Friday at the White House to sign a minerals deal with the United States. President Donald Trump made the announcement Wednesday.

Hamas said Thursday it was ready to negotiate the the next phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after a swap in which it handed over what it said were the remains of four hostages in exchange for the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

It was the final such exchange the two sides agreed to as part of a truce that's set to end this weekend. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more prisoners and a lasting ceasefire, have not yet begun.

Israel's refusal to withdraw from a narrow strip of desert on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, as called for in the ceasefire with Hamas, could further threaten the fragile truce.

An Israeli official said Thursday that Israeli forces would remain in the so-called Philadelphi corridor to prevent weapons smuggling. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.