Politics

More than 1,800 protesters were detained in Turkey following the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, on corruption charges. Mr Imamoglu is the main potential electoral threat to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president; the opposition says the charges are politically motivated and bogus. Amid the turmoil Turkey’s stockmarket fell heavily and the lira slumped against the dollar. Both clawed back some losses after emergency interventions from the stockmarket regulator and the central bank.

Russia plays America

American negotiators held separate talks with Russia and Ukraine to arrange a maritime truce in the Black Sea. Ukraine said it would accept the deal. Russia suggested it would do so only when sanctions were lifted on some Russian banks, which the EU may block. The White House called it a positive step, but the truce, which covers only a small part of a much wider conflict, remains hypothetical.

Sweden’s centre-right government announced a rise in defence spending, from 2.4% to 3.5% of GDP. Ulf Kristersson, the prime minister, said all European countries in NATO, which Sweden joined last year, would have to take a “big step forward” in funding defence.

America lowered the diplomatic heat with Denmark by altering the itinerary of a visit to Greenland by a US delegation. The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, had said the original plan, in which the delegation would attend a dog-sled race, was unacceptable, because it was part of America’s charm offensive to pry Greenland away from Denmark. The new itinerary involves America’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, visiting America’s space base at Pituffik.

A frail Pope Francis made a brief balcony appearance upon his release from hospital, where he spent six weeks battling pneumonia. The pontiff was so ill that his doctors had considered ending his treatment.

England’s regulator for higher education fined the University of Sussex £585,000 ($755,000) for failing “to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom”, as well as faults in its management and governance processes. The fine relates to the university’s handling of the case of Kathleen Stock, a professor who expressed gender-critical views. The regulator’s investigation found that the university’s policy statement on transgender people had a “chilling effect” on staff and students, meaning they felt they could “not speak about or express certain lawful views”.

The Israeli government managed to get its budget through the Knesset, ensuring the survival of Binyamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition. The bill had to pass by the end of March to avoid fresh elections. The budget includes a huge increase in defence spending. Mr Netanyahu’s opponents criticised funding for projects that placate the far-right parties in his coalition, such as religious seminaries. Earlier, the Supreme Court told the cabinet to suspend its sacking of Ronen Bar as head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, until the court can hold a hearing.

Israel carried out drone strikes in southern Lebanon, after several rockets were fired across the border. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has largely held since November. Israel claimed it killed a senior Hizbullah commander in one of its drone strikes.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for firing a missile at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv and two other missiles at Israel. All were intercepted. Meanwhile, the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza claimed that 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war with Israel there. It did not provide a breakdown of civilian and combatant deaths.

Fighting resumed in eastern Congo after M23, a rebel group supported by Rwanda, retracted a promise to withdraw from the strategically important town of Walikale. It had announced the withdrawal following the latest round of peace talks between Congo and Rwanda, brokered by Qatar.

The Sudanese Armed Forces said they had recaptured the airport in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, from the Rapid Support Forces, the army’s main adversary in the country’s civil war. The SAF had earlier retaken the presidential palace. Taking command of the airport brings the army one step closer towards regaining control of Khartoum, which it lost to the RSF after the war began in 2023.

At least 27 people were killed by wildfires in South Korea, a country where forest infernos are a rarity. The fires, which officials think were started by people burning overgrown grass, were fuelled by a spell of dry weather and high winds.

The Unification Church was in effect banned in Japan by a court. The church was founded in South Korea and is often referred to as a sect. The Japanese government had sought its dissolution following the assassination of Abe Shinzo, a former prime minister, in 2022. Abe’s assassin held a grudge against the church and an investigation revealed its links with politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

America removed bounties from the heads of three senior Taliban officials in Afghanistan. It follows a slight thaw in the icy relations between the two countries. A senior American diplomat visited Kabul recently for the first time since the Taliban regained power in 2021. The visit led to the release of an American held captive by the regime since 2022.

Sending the wrong Signal

The White House tried to play down the worst security breach of Donald Trump’s presidency. Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic, was added to a security chat group by mistake, and was sent details in advance of America’s plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen. The chats on the Signal app also revealed J.D. Vance saying that he hates “bailing Europe out again”, and Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, sharing his “loathing of European freeloading”. Mr Trump held no one to account for the breach.

Congressional authorisation for PEPFAR, the American President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, expired. That does not end the initiative, but, together with the foreign-aid freeze announced in January, casts doubt on its future. The Lancet HIV reported an estimate that, if PEPFAR ceased and aid-reductions by certain other countries also went ahead, as many as 2.93m more people than otherwise might die of AIDS by 2030.

The Trump administration gave notice that it would soon revoke a programme that has given 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela a temporary legal right to live in the United States. It said they should leave or face deportation.

Lawyers representing the Venezuelan government asked El Salvador’s Supreme Court to free some of the 238 Venezuelans who were deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador under an agreement with the country. America says they are gang members; the lawyers disagree.

Brazil’s Supreme Court decided that Jair Bolsonaro should stand trial for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the government. Mr Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid for president in 2022. He is accused of devising a coup against the winner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and of trying to undermine the democratic system. Mr Bolsonaro says the charges are “baseless”.

Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, called a snap election for April 28th. Mr Carney’s Liberal Party has staged a remarkable comeback in the polls, as voters rally around their government in defiance of Mr Trump’s imposition of tariffs and his disparaging of Canada as America’s 51st state (he referred to Justin Trudeau, Mr Carney’s predecessor, as Governor Trudeau).