📹 Area near CIA HQ sealed off by police amid reports of armed man

Special forces and bomb disposal experts are on the scene. Officials are yet to comment on the "incident".

Footage from social media

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Zelensky agrees to halt strikes on Russian energy assets - report

He told Trump about it during their phone call earlier in the day, Bloomberg reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.

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📹 Israeli forces have launched a ground operation in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip in order to create a buffer zone, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The military added that it had decided to deploy Golani Brigade fighters to the southern Gaza Strip for possible further military operations.

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🗣 Russia's special presidential envoy for investment and economic cooperation and CEO of the country's sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, has declared progress towards peace, responding to a report that Volodymyr Zelensky had promised to support a proposal to stop attacks on energy infrastructure.

"Good progress to peace," he wrote on X, responding to a user's post about Zelensky's statement.

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🇺🇸🇮🇷 Donald Trump sets two-month deadline for new nuclear deal in letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Axios, citing sources.

Earlier, Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi said that the country's nuclear program is and will stay peaceful. He added that Iran would not negotiate under pressure or threat.

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📹 Follow the drone: How Russian civilians were evacuated by UAV amid Ukrainian attacks

Ten civilians have been guided towards an extraction team by a recon drone while Russian electronic warfare specialists thwarted several attempted Ukrainian first-person view drone strikes against them.

Thanks to a DARING RESCUE OPERATION, the four children, four adults and an elderly couple who spent over a month hiding in a basement from Ukrainian artillery strikes in the settlement of Konstantinopol in the Donetsk People’s Republic managed to find their way to safety.

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🇺🇸💥 The US has launched new strikes on several provinces of Yemen, including a district in Sana'a where the Houthi leadership is located, a Yemeni source told Sputnik.

"US fighter jets carried out two raids ... in the north of the capital Sanaa, where a number of Ansar Allah leaders are based," the source said, adding that the strikes also targeted the suburbs of the city of Sadah in the north of the country.

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❗️Donald Trump believes that if the United States owns Ukrainian energy facilities, this will be the best means of protecting infrastructure, the White House said.

Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky that the United States is ready to help manage electric and nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

The United States will continue to share intelligence with Ukraine "for defense purposes," the White House said.

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🇹🇷 Istanbul mayor DETAINED: reactions and economic backlash

▪️Ekrem Imamoglu, who was seen as a main political rival of President Erdogan, has been accused of being a member of a criminal organization, extortion, bribery and aggravated fraud.

▪️The Istanbul University has annulled Imamoglu’s degree over alleged irregularities, in a move that he rejected as “illegal”. Without a university degree, he would be disqualified from running for president.

▪️The detention comes before Turkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is due to hold a primary election, where Imamoglu was expected to be picked as the party’s presidential candidate.

How did politicians react?

🔻CHP leader Ozgur Ozel slammed Imamoglu’s arrest as “a coup attempt against our [Turkiye’s] next president.”

🔻CHP deputy chairman Ilhan Uzgel accused the government of using the Istabul mayor’s detention as an "instrument to intimidate" Turkiye’s opposition.

🔻“A handful of people who are trying to steal the will of the people, have sent […] the security forces implicating them in this wrongful doing,” Imamoglu himself wrote on X, referring to his arrest.

Meanwhile, Erdogan’s office has condemned “baseless slander” against the Turkish president amid the mayor’s detention.

What’s the economic backlash?

🔸The Istanbul Stock Exchange’s main index plummeted by 7% over the news of Imamoglu’s arrest, resulting in a temporary halt to trading to prevent panic selling.

🔸The Turkish lira made a record fall in the aftermath of the Istanbul mayor’s detention, dropping to 41 against the US dollar.

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