US and Ukrainian officials have met for further talks aimed at hammering out a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Washington signalling its hope for “real progress” even as Moscow warned that “difficult negotiations” lie ahead.

The gulf in expectations marked the start of the latest round of negotiations in Saudi Arabia, which was set to follow with a meeting between American officials and Russia on Monday. The US is pushing for a broad ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine by 20 April, according to Bloomberg, though sources said the timeline may slip given the wide gap that exists between Kyiv and Moscow’s positions.

On Sunday, the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, appeared upbeat about working with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since the second world war. “I feel that he wants peace,” Witkoff told Fox News.

This week’s talks are expected to delve into the details of implementing the 30-day ceasefire on energy infrastructure, and potentially expand into shipping in the Black Sea.

“I think you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries,” said Witkoff. “And from that you’ll naturally gravitate to a full-on shooting ceasefire.”

Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said after the meeting that the talks were “constructive”, adding that the energy sector was a key focus of the negotiations.

“The discussion was productive and focused – we addressed key points including energy,” he said on social media, adding Ukraine was working to make its goal of a “just and lasting peace” a reality.

Earlier on Sunday, the White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said that the US was also talking through a range of confidence-building measures, including the future of Ukrainian children taken into Russia.

The Kremlin, however, swiftly poured cold water on hopes for a rapid resolution, saying that “difficult negotiations” lie ahead. “We are only at the beginning of this path,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV on Sunday.

Peskov said the “main” focus in its talks with the US would be a possible resumption of a 2022 Black Sea grain deal, brokered by Turkey and the UN, that ensured safe navigation for Ukrainian farm exports via the Black Sea.

Moscow pulled out of the deal in 2023, amid accusations that the west had failed to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s exports of farm produce and fertilisers.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Witkoff, a real estate developer who had no prior diplomatic experience before being tasked as Donald Trump’s special envoy, downplayed fears of Vladimir Putin launching a broader aggression.

“I just don’t see that he wants to take all of Europe,” he said. “I take him at his word in this sense, so, and I think the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too. But it sort of doesn’t matter. That’s an academic issue … The agenda is, stop the killing, stop the carnage. Let’s end this thing.”

Last week Putin agreed to Trump’s proposal for a 30-day halt on attacks to energy infrastructure. The ceasefire, however, was cast into doubt soon after, with both sides reporting continued strikes.

Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that at least seven people were killed overnight after Russia launched 147 drones. Ukrainian air defences shot down 97 of the drones, and 25 others were hindered by Ukrainian countermeasures.

Three people, including a five-year-old child, were killed in Kyiv, while four people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

Russian troops reportedly seized the small village of Sribne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while Ukraine’s army said its troops had recaptured the small village of Nadia in the eastern Luhansk region.

Russian officials said Sunday that their air defences had destroyed 59 Ukrainian drones targeting the country’s southwestern regions, noting that the strikes had killed one person in Rostov.

This week’s talks come on the heels of a wide-ranging interview with the former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, in which Witkoff detailed his admiration for Putin, who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, and scorned the UK’s prime minister.

Witkoff said he “liked” the Russian president – “I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy … He’s super smart”, he said – while he dismissed Keir Starmer’s readiness to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine post-ceasefire as “a combination of a posture and a pose”.

Witkoff, who is leading the US ceasefire negotiations with both Russia and Ukraine, described Starmer’s idea as “simplistic” adding: “I think there’s this, you know, this sort of notion of we’ve all got to be like Winston Churchill, the Russians are gonna march across Europe. I think that’s preposterous. By the way, we have something called Nato that we did not have in World War II.”

Witkoff also asserted that Kyiv had “agreed” to hold elections, though he offered no further details or backing for the claim. Ukraine’s constitution bars national elections from being held during a period of martial law, while, logistically speaking, any outcome risks being marred by disruptions from air raids, potential attacks on crowded polling stations and the Russian occupation of some regions.

When asked about the upcoming talks, however, Witkoff said the “central issue” was the Ukrainian regions that had been annexed or partially occupied by Russian forces. He stumbled, however, in trying to name them.

“The largest issue in that conflict are these so-called four regions, Donbas, Crimea, you know the names and there are two others,” said Witkoff, in remarks that appeared to be an attempt to name Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson and that confused Crimea for one of the four occupied eastern territories.

Earlier this month, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine would not recognise any occupied territories – where Russia was accused of holding sham polls in 2022 in a bid to provide cover for their illegal annexation – as Russian.

Witkoff appeared to side with the Kremlin as he cited the largely discredited polls as evidence of local sentiment on the ground and conflated the locally spoken language with support for Russia.

“They’re Russian-speaking,” Witkoff said of the four eastern regions. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”

In 2022, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors elections, said the referendums had not met international standards and had been held in areas where much of the population had fled and which were not secure, while there has been no evidence to suggest that Russian-speaking areas are more favourable to Russian rule.

Witkoff continued: “The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories? Can Zelenskyy survive politically if he acknowledges this?”

Witkoff, who met Putin earlier this month in Moscow, told Carlson that the meeting “got personal”, as Putin had commissioned “a beautiful portrait” of Trump from a “leading Russian artist” for Witkoff to take home to the US president.

Putin also told Witkoff of his reaction to the failed assassination attempt against Trump. “He went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president – not because he was the president of the United States or could become the president of the United States – but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend,” said Witkoff.

“And I came home and delivered that message to our president and delivered the painting, and he was clearly touched by it,” he added.

His comments were swiftly slammed by the journalist and historian Anne Applebaum. “If you ever wondered how the KGB manipulated foreigners and got them to repeat Soviet propaganda, spend some time listening to Steve Witkoff talk about his wonderful conversations with Vladimir Putin,” she wrote on social media.

Witkoff went on to assert that the Russians had now obtained what they had hoped for when they launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Why would they want to absorb Ukraine? For what purpose, exactly? They don’t need to absorb Ukraine,” he said. “They’ve gotten – they’ve reclaimed these five regions. They have Crimea, and they’ve gotten what they want. So why do they need more?”

Instead he envisioned a global stage where the US and Russia could build on the ceasefire to normalise relations and join forces in areas such as energy policies in the Arctic, sea lanes, LNG supplies to Europe and artificial intelligence. “Who doesn’t want to have a world where Russia and the United States are doing, collaboratively, good things together?” he asked.

• A US delegation will seek progress toward a Black Sea ceasefire and a broader cessation of violence in the war in Ukraine when it meets for talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Monday, after discussions with diplomats from Ukraine on Sunday. The White House says the aim of the talks is to reach a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, allowing the free flow of shipping.

• A wide gulf remains, however, between the US’ and Russia’s expectations, with US envoy Steve Witkoff signalling hope for “real progress” and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warning that “difficult negotiations” lie ahead. “I think you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries,” Witkoff told Fox News. “And from that you’ll naturally gravitate to a full-on shooting ceasefire.” Peskov meanwhile told Russian state TV, “We are only at the beginning of this path.”

• Witkoff dismissed UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s attempts to rally peacekeepers in Ukraine as “a posture and a pose.” He said the idea was based on a “simplistic” notion of the UK prime minister and other European leaders thinking: “We have all got to be like Winston Churchill.”

• The US envoy also praised Vladimir Putin, saying he “liked” the Russian president and did not “regard Putin as a bad guy”. “That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it.” He added that Putin was “super smart” and believed he wanted peace.

• Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration was aiming to secure a broad truce agreement between Russia and Ukraine by Easter. The White House is aiming for a truce agreement by 20 April – Easter Sunday in both the western and orthodox churches this year. But sources told the news organisation that the date was likely to slip.

• Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said on social media talks with the US delegation were “constructive and meaningful” and focused on key issues, including the energy sector. Trump has previously suggested the US could control Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities.

• At least seven people were killed in a barrage of strikes from more than 140 drones across Ukraine on Sunday, according to local Ukrainian officials and emergency services. The sound of explosions were heard in the early hours of the night across the capital, Kyiv, as the air raid continued for more than five hours. Russian drones and debris from shot-down drones, which were flying at lower altitudes to evade air defences, fell on residential buildings across the Ukrainian capital. At least one child was among those killed.

• Russian troops reportedly seized the small village of Sribne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while Ukraine’s army said its troops had recaptured the small village of Nadia in the eastern Luhansk region.

• Ukraine’s army has said its troops have recaptured a small village called Nadia in the eastern Luhansk region, in a rare battlefield success for Kyiv’s forces in an area that Russia has almost fully captured since invading in 2022.

• A US delegation will seek progress toward a Black Sea ceasefire and a broader cessation of violence in the war in Ukraine when it meets for talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Monday, after discussions with diplomats from Ukraine on Sunday. The White House says the aim of the talks is to reach a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, allowing the free flow of shipping.

• A wide gulf remains, however, between the US’ and Russia’s expectations, with US envoy Steve Witkoff signalling hope for “real progress” and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warning that “difficult negotiations” lie ahead. “I think you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries,” Witkoff told Fox News. “And from that you’ll naturally gravitate to a full-on shooting ceasefire.” Peskov meanwhile told Russian state TV, “We are only at the beginning of this path.”

• Witkoff dismissed UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s attempts to rally peacekeepers in Ukraine as “a posture and a pose.” He said the idea was based on a “simplistic” notion of the UK prime minister and other European leaders thinking: “We have all got to be like Winston Churchill.”

• The US envoy also praised Vladimir Putin, saying he “liked” the Russian president and did not “regard Putin as a bad guy”. “That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it.” He added that Putin was “super smart” and believed he wanted peace.

• Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration was aiming to secure a broad truce agreement between Russia and Ukraine by Easter. The White House is aiming for a truce agreement by 20 April – Easter Sunday in both the western and orthodox churches this year. But sources told the news organisation that the date was likely to slip.

• Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said on social media talks with the US delegation were “constructive and meaningful” and focused on key issues, including the energy sector. Trump has previously suggested the US could control Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities.

• At least seven people were killed in a barrage of strikes from more than 140 drones across Ukraine on Sunday, according to local Ukrainian officials and emergency services. The sound of explosions were heard in the early hours of the night across the capital, Kyiv, as the air raid continued for more than five hours. Russian drones and debris from shot-down drones, which were flying at lower altitudes to evade air defences, fell on residential buildings across the Ukrainian capital. At least one child was among those killed.

• Russian troops reportedly seized the small village of Sribne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while Ukraine’s army said its troops had recaptured the small village of Nadia in the eastern Luhansk region.

• Ukraine’s army has said its troops have recaptured a small village called Nadia in the eastern Luhansk region, in a rare battlefield success for Kyiv’s forces in an area that Russia has almost fully captured since invading in 2022.

Usha Vance, the wife of US vice-president JD Vance, will travel to Greenland this week as President Donald Trump clings to the idea of a US annexation of the strategic, semi-autonomous Danish territory.

Vance will visit Greenland on Thursday with a US delegation to tour historical sites, learn about the territory’s heritage and attend the national dogsled race, the White House said in a statement.

The delegation will return to the US on 29 March. The White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and the energy secretary, Chris Wright, will also travel to Greenland, visiting a US military base in Greenland, a US official said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has made US annexation of Greenland a major talking point since taking office for a second time on 20 January and has said it will become part of the US “one way or the other”.

Speaking on Sunday to the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq, Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, said the visit by Waltz was a “provocation”.

“The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood,” he said. “He is Trump’s confidential and closest adviser, and his presence in Greenland alone will certainly make the Americans believe in Trump’s mission, and the pressure will increase after the visit.”

Greenland’s strategic location and rich mineral resources could benefit the US. It lies along the shortest route from Europe to North America – vital for the US ballistic missile warning system.

The governments of both Greenland and Denmark have voiced opposition to such a move.

The Greenlandic government, which is in a caretaker period after a 11 March general election won by a party that favours a slow approach to independence from Denmark, did not reply to requests for comments.

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said in a written comment reacting to news of the visit that “this is something we take seriously”. She said Denmark wanted to cooperate with the US but it should be cooperation based on “the fundamental rules of sovereignty”.

She added that the dialogue with the US regarding Greenland would take place in close coordination with the Danish government and the future Greenlandic government.

With Reuters

The US Internal Revenue Service is reportedly nearing a deal to allow immigration officials to use tax data to support Donald Trump’s deportation agenda.

Under the proposed data-sharing agreement, said to have been in negotiations for weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) could hand over the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants to the IRS, raising concerns about abuse of power from the Trump administration and the erosion of privacy rights.

If access to this confidential database is agreed on, it would mark a significant shift, likely becoming the first time immigration officials have relied on the tax system for enforcement assistance in such a sweeping way.

Under the agreement, the IRS would cross-reference names of undocumented immigrants with their confidential taxpayer databases, a move that would breach the long-standing trust in the confidentiality of tax information. Such data has historically been considered sensitive and thereby closely guarded, so the reported deal has raised alarm bells at the IRS, according to the Washington Post.

Here are the key US politics story from Sunday:

Tiger Woods has confirmed he is in a relationship with Donald Trump’s former daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump.

Woods announced the news on Sunday. “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side! We look forward to our journey through life together,” Woods wrote on X to his 6.4 millions followers … At this time we would appreciate privacy for all those close to our hearts.”

Vanessa was married to Donald Trump Jr from 2005 to 2018. They have five children together, including 17-year-old Kai, who is set to play golf at the University of Miami in 2026. Kai also attends the same school as Woods’s children, Sam and Charlie. Kai and Charlie competed at the same invitational tournament earlier this week.

Woods and Vanessa Trump had been featured in gossip outlets for the last several weeks. Woods announced this month that he ruptured his achilles tendon, knocking him out of the Masters.

It was not clear what prompted Woods, who keeps his personal life fiercely private, to publish photos confirming the relationship. The post was reminiscent of 2013, when he and Lindsey Vonn announced on social media that they were dating.

Woods said at the time he and Vonn “wanted to limit the ‘stalkarazzi’ and all those sleazy websites that are out there following us,” saying it could lead to dangerous situations involving his children. He also said their photos would devalue anything the paparazzi had.

Sam and Charlie are from Woods’s marriage to Elin Nordegren, who divorced him in 2010 after he had been exposed for multiple extramarital affairs.

His only other public relationship was with Erica Herman, which lasted about seven years until October 2022. It was a messy split, and Herman eventually dismissed lawsuits against Woods and the trust that owns his south Florida estate, where she had been living.

Woods has played golf with Donald Trump on several occasions. Trump awarded Woods the presidential medal of freedom in 2019. In February, Woods attended a meeting with Trump at the White House to discuss the fractured status of golf amid the rise of the Saudi-backed LIV tour.

An Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza has killed five people, including a Hamas political leader and Palestinian medics, Hamas has said, in an attack that Israel said had targeted a key figure in the militant group.

The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site.

Hamas said a member of its political office, Ismail Barhoum, had been killed.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the target was Barhoum. The military did not name the target, which it described only as “a key terrorist” in Hamas.

Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV said Barhoum was being treated at the hospital for wounds sustained in a previous attack. Israel says Hamas systematically embeds personnel in hospitals, schools and shelters, which the group denies.

Video on social media showed a fire blazing on the third storey of what appeared to be the hospital. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

After two months of relative calm in the war, Palestinians in Gaza have again been fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign on Tuesday against Hamas.

Another leader in Hamas, Salah al-Bardaweel, was killed in a separate strike in Khan Younis, Hamas said earlier. The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Bardaweel on Saturday.

Both Bardaweel and Barhoum were members of the 19-member Hamas decision-making body, the political office, 11 of whom have been killed since the start of the war in late 2023, according to Hamas sources.

Explosions echoed throughout the north, central and southern Gaza Strip early on Sunday, as Israeli planes hit targets in those areas in what witnesses said was an escalation of the attacks that began earlier in the week.

Signalling it could escalate its actions further, the Israeli military said on Sunday one of its divisions that had operated in Lebanon, where Israel had fought Hamas’s Iranian-backed ally, Hezbollah, was preparing for possible action in Gaza.

It distributed video of tanks unloaded in a field and a caption that read: “Preparations of the 36th Division for Operations in the Gaza Strip.”

At least 45 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis so far on Sunday, Gaza health authorities said.

Palestinian officials on Sunday put the death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict at more than 50,000.

The Israeli military said it did its best to reduce harm to civilians and questioned the death toll provided by health authorities in the Hamas-run territory.

Most of the dead in Gaza have been civilians, according to health officials. Israel said they included about 20,000 fighters. Hamas does not disclose casualty figures.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the aim of the war was to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity. The ambition of the new campaign was to force the group to give up remaining hostages, he said on Tuesday.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke to Netanyahu to “emphasise US support for Israel”, a state department spokesperson said. They discussed Israel’s continuing military operations in Gaza, efforts to bring hostages home and US strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, the spokesperson added.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

“Israel’s military offensive has caused an appalling loss of life,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “As long as this war continues, both sides lose.”

Kallas added Israel must respect civilian lives and that threats to annex parts of Gaza were unacceptable.

An Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza has killed five people, including a Hamas political leader and Palestinian medics, Hamas has said, in an attack that Israel said had targeted a key figure in the militant group.

The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site.

Hamas said a member of its political office, Ismail Barhoum, had been killed.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the target was Barhoum. The military did not name the target, which it described only as “a key terrorist” in Hamas.

Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV said Barhoum was being treated at the hospital for wounds sustained in a previous attack. Israel says Hamas systematically embeds personnel in hospitals, schools and shelters, which the group denies.

Video on social media showed a fire blazing on the third storey of what appeared to be the hospital. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

After two months of relative calm in the war, Palestinians in Gaza have again been fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign on Tuesday against Hamas.

Another leader in Hamas, Salah al-Bardaweel, was killed in a separate strike in Khan Younis, Hamas said earlier. The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Bardaweel on Saturday.

Both Bardaweel and Barhoum were members of the 19-member Hamas decision-making body, the political office, 11 of whom have been killed since the start of the war in late 2023, according to Hamas sources.

Explosions echoed throughout the north, central and southern Gaza Strip early on Sunday, as Israeli planes hit targets in those areas in what witnesses said was an escalation of the attacks that began earlier in the week.

Signalling it could escalate its actions further, the Israeli military said on Sunday one of its divisions that had operated in Lebanon, where Israel had fought Hamas’s Iranian-backed ally, Hezbollah, was preparing for possible action in Gaza.

It distributed video of tanks unloaded in a field and a caption that read: “Preparations of the 36th Division for Operations in the Gaza Strip.”

At least 45 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis so far on Sunday, Gaza health authorities said.

Palestinian officials on Sunday put the death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict at more than 50,000.

The Israeli military said it did its best to reduce harm to civilians and questioned the death toll provided by health authorities in the Hamas-run territory.

Most of the dead in Gaza have been civilians, according to health officials. Israel said they included about 20,000 fighters. Hamas does not disclose casualty figures.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the aim of the war was to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity. The ambition of the new campaign was to force the group to give up remaining hostages, he said on Tuesday.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke to Netanyahu to “emphasise US support for Israel”, a state department spokesperson said. They discussed Israel’s continuing military operations in Gaza, efforts to bring hostages home and US strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, the spokesperson added.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

“Israel’s military offensive has caused an appalling loss of life,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “As long as this war continues, both sides lose.”

Kallas added Israel must respect civilian lives and that threats to annex parts of Gaza were unacceptable.

South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled against the impeachment of the country’s prime minister, Han Duck-soo, and to restore his position as acting president, marking the latest political twist in months of political turmoil.

Han took over as acting president after the country’s leader, Yoon Suk Yeol, was himself impeached over his short-lived declaration of martial law late last year.

Han lasted less than two weeks in the post and was impeached and suspended on 27 December after clashing with the opposition-led parliament by refusing to appoint three more justices to the constitutional court.

The court’s justices ruled seven to one on Monday to strike down the impeachment.

Out of the eight justices, five said the impeachment motion against Han was valid but there were not enough grounds to impeach him as he did not violate the constitution or South Korean law concerning the martial law announcement or potential insurrection, according to a court statement.

Two justices ruled that the impeachment motion against Han, who was acting president at the time, was invalid from the start as two-thirds of lawmakers in parliament did not pass it. One justice voted to impeach Han.

Han, 75, had served in leadership positions for more than three decades under five presidents, both conservative and liberal.

In a country sharply divided by partisan rhetoric, Han had been seen as a rare example of an official whose varied career transcended party lines.

Still, the opposition-led parliament accused him of not doing enough to thwart Yoon’s decision to declare martial law, an accusation he denied.

The finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, assumed the position of acting president while the cases of Yoon and Han were considered by the constitutional court.

Parliament impeached Han over his alleged role in the martial law, as well as his refusal to appoint more justices to the constitutional court and to back special counsel bills targeting Yoon and the first lady, Kim Keon-hee.

Han attended the only hearing in the case on 19 February, where he denied any role in the martial law episode and called for the court to dismiss the impeachment.

The unexpected imposition of martial law on 3 December by Yoon and the ensuing political upheaval sent shock waves through Asia’s fourth-largest economy, and drew concerns from allies such as the US, who had seen Yoon as a key partner in efforts to counter China and North Korea.

The martial law in the end lasted only about six hours after lawmakers voted to reject the declaration, after defying efforts by police and the military to seal off parliament, hopping fences to avoid the security cordons.

An Istanbul court has formally arrested the city’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on corruption charges, sending him to pre-trial detention on the day he received his party’s nomination to run for president.

The mayor of Turkey’s largest city and a rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was jailed on charges of leading a criminal organisation, bribery, misconduct and corruption, along with dozens of his staff and municipal officials.

İmamoğlu and at least four others also faced a separate set of charges accusing him of “aiding an armed terrorist group” for cooperating with a leftwing political coalition before local elections last year.

Demonstrators who massed near Istanbul’s city hall, angry at the decision to officially arrest İmamoğlu, faced police who pepper-sprayed crowds. As their numbers swelled, protesters increasingly clashed with police who fired teargas. In Izmir, video showed police attempting to disperse protests using armoured water cannon trucks.

Prosecutors ruled that İmamoğlu’s detention on corruption charges alone was sufficient, despite “a strong suspicion of a crime”, opting to detain three others on terrorism charges but not the mayor. This decision is expected to allow the Republican People’s party (CHP), Turkey’s largest opposition party, to select a candidate to control the Istanbul municipality, rather than the state selecting a caretaker.

The Turkish interior ministry issued a directive to officially remove İmamoğlu and two Istanbul district mayors from office, appointing a trustee to replace one in a neighbourhood long seen as a bedrock of opposition support.

İmamoğlu has denied the accusations against him, telling investigators during questioning that his detention had “not only harmed Turkey’s international reputation but has also shattered the public’s sense of justice and trust in the economy”.

His chief spokesperson, Murat Ongun, who was also remanded in custody, posted on X: “I was arrested on slander that was not based on a single piece of evidence!”

The Istanbul mayor’s detention in a dawn raid earlier this week has sparked mass protests across Turkey, with tens of thousands taking to the streets each night and often clashing with police. The interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, announced that 323 more people had been detained overnight as part of an investigation into the Istanbul municipality, the day after he announced that 343 people had been arrested for protesting.

Turkish officials rejected any suggestion that the sweeping crackdown against İmamoğlu, along with municipal officials, businesspeople and dozens of other members of the CHP, was politically motivated. This has done little to quell anti-government sentiment, and demonstrators have filled university campuses, public squares and surrounded Istanbul’s city hall each night to defy a protest ban.

The growing demonstrations have sparked fierce criticism from Erdoğan, who has labelled them “street terrorism”.

Posting on X, he wrote: “The days of taking to the streets along with leftwing organisations and vandals to point the finger at the national will are over … we will definitely not allow the CHP and its supporters to disrupt public order and disturb the peace of our nation through provocations.”

İmamoğlu was jailed on pre-trial detention on the same day that 1.5 million members of the CHP held a primary vote to officially endorse his candidacy for president. The Istanbul mayor was the party’s sole presidential candidate, turning the vote into a symbolic show of support, particularly after the CHP offered non-members a “solidarity vote” in the primary.

The embattled mayor issued a message from the high-security facility where he is now held. “Fifteen million of our citizens cast their votes,” he said. “Their message to Erdoğan was clear: “Enough is enough.’”

He added: “That ballot box will come, and the nation will deliver a slap this government will never forget.”

İmamoğlu has long been seen as the only challenger capable of defeating Erdoğan at the ballot box. A presidential election in Turkey is due in 2028, but an early vote is expected.

The CHP leader, Özgur Özel, has accused Erdoğan and his government of detaining İmamoğlu over fears of an election loss. Istanbul University stripped İmamoğlu of his university diploma before his arrest, preventing him from running for president, as a degree is a pre-requisite.

“Ekrem İmamoğlu’s only crime is leading in the polls,” Özel told crowds massing outside Istanbul city hall earlier this week. Speaking to reporters on Sunday he said: “Ekrem İmamoğlu is currently on the road to prison but he is also on the road to the presidency. The nation is repelling a coup through solidarity ballot boxes.”

Many of those who took to the streets after İmamoğlu’s arrest said his detention had galvanised their decision to show up at the ballot boxes, even if the vote remained symbolic. The CHP said it had extended voting times to keep up with demand, amid images of vast crowds at the polls in their Istanbul stronghold of Kadıköy, and a line stretching around the block outside the polls in the opposition-held neighbourhood of Şişli.

“This is a way for us to show our power, to show we’re coming in strong,” said a protester who gave her name as Devrim, who said she had been volunteering with CHP efforts to drive up participation in the ballot to demonstrate a groundswell of support for İmamoğlu.

The CHP has also permitted those who are not party members to participate in the primary vote. “We were expecting a high turnout before, but now we think it will be even bigger,” said Devrim.

The Ankara mayor, Mansur Yavaş, a leading member of the CHP, told reporters: “Honestly, we are embarrassed in the name of our legal system,” in reference to İmamoğlu’s arrest, after casting his ballot in the primary.

“We learned from television pundits about the allegations that even lawyers did not have access to, showing how politically motivated this whole ordeal has been,” he said.

A high-profile gymnastics coach, trainer of multiple Olympians and long-time owner of one of Melbourne’s largest gym providers has been charged with seven child sex offences.

Ross Bouskill, former owner of Jets Gymnastics, appeared via video link at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court in Melbourne on Monday.

His lawyer Ian Robertson said he plans to defend the seven charges, which include allegedly exposing his penis to a child and allegedly having a child remove her top so he could take photographs.

Bouskill was a mentor to hundreds of Victorian gymnasts over three decades, including some who progressed to the highest levels of the sport.

In 2020 he handed over control of Jets Gymnastics, which includes seven locations in Victoria, after almost 30 years of ownership. He now runs a business consulting agency.

Victorian police allege he caressed a child’s leg and moved his hand upwards towards her vagina in 1995, one of seven charges stretching over 15 years.

Three charges date from between 2001 and 2005, including allegedly exposing his penis to a child, allegedly massaging a child’s pubic bone area with his hands and allegedly getting a child to remove her top so he could take photographs of her.

Three more charges of allegedly touching the outside of child’s vagina with his finger relate to a period between 2010 and 2011.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

The matter is set down for a contest mention in June.

The South African ambassador who was expelled from the US and declared persona non grata by the Trump administration was welcomed home on Sunday by hundreds of supporters who sang songs praising him.

Crowds at Cape Town International airport surrounded Ebrahim Rasool and his wife Rosieda as they emerged in the arrivals terminal in their home town, and they needed a police escort to help them navigate their way through the building.

“A declaration of persona non grata is meant to humiliate you,” Rasool told the supporters as he addressed them with a megaphone. “But when you return to crowds like this, and with warmth … like this, then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity.”

“It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets,” he said.

Rasool was expelled for comments he made on a webinar that included him saying the Maga movement was partly a response to “a supremacist instinct”.

Rasool said on his return home that it was important for South Africa to fix its relationship with the US after Donald Trump punished the country and accused it of taking an anti-American stance, even before the decision to expel him.

The US president issued an executive order last month cutting all funding to South Africa, alleging its government is supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran, and pursuing anti-white policies at home.

“We don’t come here to say we are anti-American,” Rasool said to the crowd. “We are not here to call on you to throw away our interests with the United States.”

They were the ex-ambassador’s first public comments since the Trump administration declared him persona non grata over a week ago, removed his diplomatic immunities and privileges and gave him until this Friday to leave the US.

It is highly unusual for the US to expel an ambassador.

Rasool was declared persona non grata by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in a post on X on 14 March. Rubio said Rasool was a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and Trump.

Although Rubio did not directly cite a reason, his post linked to a story by the conservative Breitbart news site that reported on a talk Rasool gave in a webinar organised by a South African thinktank. In his talk, Rasool spoke in academic language of the Trump administration’s crackdowns on diversity and equity programmes and on immigration, and mentioned the possibility of a US where white people soon would no longer be in the majority.

“The supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the Maga movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white,” Rasool said in the talk.

On Sunday, he said he stood by those comments and characterised them as merely alerting intellectuals and political leaders in South Africa that the US and its politics had changed.

“It is not the US of Obama, it is not the US of Clinton, it is a different US and therefore our language must change,” Rasool said. “I would stand by my analysis because we were analysing a political phenomenon, not a personality, not a nation, and not even a government.”

He also said South Africa would resist pressure from the US, and anyone else, to drop its case at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Trump administration has cited that case against US ally Israel as one of the reasons it alleges South Africa is anti-American.

Gérard Depardieu will become the most high-profile French person to stand trial on #MeToo abuse allegations when he appears in a Paris court on Monday.

The actor, a titan of French cinema with more than 200 films and television series to his name, is accused of sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021.

Depardieu, 76, has faced allegations of rape or sexual assault from more than a dozen women, all of which he has denied, but this is the first time he has appeared in court to answer accusations.

The two women, an assistant director, 34, and a set designer, 54, at the centre of the trial worked on the set of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) released in 2022, which also stars Anouk Grinberg and Fanny Ardant.

The set designer went to police to accuse Depardieu of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual insults during filming after the actor published an open letter in Le Figaro newspaper in October 2023 stating: “Never, never have I abused a woman”, and suggesting he was the victim of a media “lynching”.

Six months earlier, the investigative website Mediapart had published allegations of sexual violence against him from more than a dozen women, with some claims going back to the early 2000s. About 20 women in total have accused him of abuse and improper behaviour but several cases have been dropped as they are out of time for prosecution.

Grinberg has supported the two women, saying Depardieu repeatedly made “salacious remarks” during the shoot in Paris.

The trial was originally scheduled for last October but was postponed due to Depardieu’s ill health. At the time, his lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said the actor had undergone a quadruple heart bypass and his diabetes had been aggravated by the stress of the forthcoming trial.

He has since been seen by a court-appointed doctor who declared him fit to appear, though the hearings will be limited to six hours a day and he will be given permission to take breaks when needed.

Depardieu was placed under formal investigation on accusations of rape and sexual assault in 2020 after the actor Charlotte Arnould accused him of having attacked her on two occasions at his home in Paris in 2018, when she was 22 and he was 70.

After Depardieu’s lawyers tried to get the case dropped, the Paris chief prosecutor said there was “serious and confirmed evidence” that justified maintaining the charges. The investigation continues.

Assous said the actor “denies all the accusations in their totality”.

The #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 after the arrest of the Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein, has been slow to gain traction in France.

At last year’s César awards, the equivalent of the Oscars, Judith Godrèche, 51, who has accused two high-profile directors of raping her as a teenager, spoke of the “omertà” surrounding the abuse of women and girls in the French film industry.