Marc Fogel, an American history teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, has been released and returned to the U.S. in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, left Russia with Fogel and brought him to the White House, where Trump greeted him.

Russia on Wednesday rejected swapping occupied territory with Kyiv in any peace deal, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky floated the idea.

"This is impossible. Russia has never and will never discuss the topic of exchanging its territory," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, ruling out Zelensky's idea of a swap involving Ukrainian-held parts of Russia's western Kursk region.

Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump for continued American military aid in exchange for developing Ukraine's mineral industry, which could provide a valuable source of the rare earth elements that are essential for many kinds of technology.

Trump said that he wanted such a deal earlier this month, and it was initially proposed last fall by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv's hand in future negotiations with Moscow.

Many countries had their worst showing in more than a decade in an index released Tuesday that serves as a barometer of public sector corruption worldwide, from leading powers such as the United States and France to authoritarian nations such as Russia and Venezuela.

Transparency International, which compiles the annual Corruption Perceptions Index, found that 47 countries out of the 180 it surveyed had their lowest score last year since it started using its current methodology for its global ranking in 2012. It said of its 2024 survey that "global corruption levels remain alarmingly high, with efforts to reduce them faltering."

Turkish police on Tuesday detained 10 senior officials of district municipalities in Istanbul over their alleged links to Kurdish militants, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, widening a crackdown on opposition-held districts in the city.

The detainees include the deputy mayors of the districts of Kartal and Atasehir, along with eight district municipal council members, Anadolu reported. All suspects are members of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP.

Iran's president has accused his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump of seeking to bring the Islamic republic "to its knees" as the country marked the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah.

Iran’s supreme leader said that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable” after U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea of nuclear talks with Tehran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also suggested that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” but stopped short of issuing a direct order not to engage with Washington.

The shooter who earlier this week killed 10 people in Sweden's worst mass shooting was connected to the adult education center where he opened fire with at least one rifle-like weapon, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Authorities said the gunman, who has not yet been officially identified, may have attended school there before Tuesday's violence on the school campus west of Stockholm. The shooter was later found dead with three guns, 10 empty magazines and a large amount of unused ammunition next to his body, officials told a news conference.

President Donald Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn't waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation building.

But just weeks into his second go-around in the White House, the Republican leader laid out plans to use American might to "take over" and reconstruct Gaza, threatened to reclaim U.S. control of the Panama Canal and floated the idea that the U.S. could buy Greenland from Denmark, which has shown no interest in parting with the island.

Two years have passed since a devastating earthquake shattered Turkey's southern region, but for Omer Aydin and many other of its survivors the memory and the suffering remain fresh.

While struggling with a third winter in the cold inside a shipping container-like temporary housing unit, the single father of three is grappling with a cost-of-living crisis that is affecting the whole country as well as still trying to heal the scars from the disaster.