President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that the long-awaited meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani would happen in Washington later this week, setting up an in-person clash between the political polar opposites who for months have antagonized each other from afar.

The sit-down, which Trump said on social media would take place Friday in the Oval Office, could possibly represent a detente of sorts between the Republican president and Democratic rising star, as Trump has since Mamdani's win moved toward acceptance of Mamdani's central, winning campaign issue of affordability.

President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday that compels his administration to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, bowing to political pressure from his own party after initially resisting those efforts.

Trump could have chosen to release many of the files on his own months ago.

Britain warned Russia on Wednesday that it was ready to deal with any incursions into its territory after the spy ship Yantar was detected on the edge of U.K. waters north of Scotland.

Defense Secretary John Healey said the Russian vessel had directed lasers at pilots of surveillance aircraft monitoring its activities.

Firefighters and army helicopters battled a fire Wednesday that burned through a neighborhood of old wooden houses in a fishing town in southwestern Japan, killing one person, injuring another and forcing more than 170 people to evacuate.

A man in his 70s was unaccounted for and firefighters later found a body, possibly of the missing man, and a woman in her 50s suffered a minor injury, the Oita prefecture disaster response team said.

Nigeria's leader promised authorities would intensify efforts to rescue 24 schoolgirls who were abducted by gunmen earlier this week from a school in the country's restive northwestern region.

The girls were kidnapped from their dorm before dawn on Monday, when gunmen attacked their boarding school, the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Maga in Nigeria's Kebbi state.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Turkey on Wednesday for talks to revive peace efforts to end the war with Russia, his top aide said, amid uncertainty over whether US special envoy Steve Witkoff would attend.

"Arrived in Türkiye as part of the delegation led by President Zelensky," the Ukrainian leader's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on X, adding he was "in constant communication" with Witkoff, who has not confirmed whether he will take part in the talks.

The Kremlin on Wednesday declined to comment on a media report that the U.S. and Russia have been secretly working on a peace plan for Ukraine.

"In this case, there is nothing new that we can inform you about," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in response to a question about the report by U.S. website Axios.

A Russian missile and drone strike on the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens, officials said Wednesday, updating a previous toll.

"Nineteen people were killed as a result of a massive combined Russian strike on the city. Another 66 people were wounded, including 16 children," the interior ministry said on social media.

Chileans face perhaps the starkest choice in the history of their country's young democracy when they vote next month in a presidential runoff that pits hard-right José Antonio Kast against communist Jeannette Jara.

Neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold to win, but Kast heads into the second round of voting best positioned to succeed after an unprecedented 70% of voters backed an array of right-wing parties in Sunday's poll.

The House is expected to vote Tuesday on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.

When a small bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson's control of which bills see the House floor, it appeared a longshot effort, especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a "hoax." But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote.