President Trump embarks on a visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday with a $1 trillion wish list for investments in the United States — a sum equivalent to the kingdom’s entire gross domestic product last year.

The Saudi crown prince is offering $600 billion during Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Neither figure is realistic, economists say.

With a laundry list of its own costly megaprojects to build and with oil prices well below the level needed to finance its spending, Saudi Arabia is facing a budget deficit that could balloon to more than $70 billion this year. It is increasingly borrowing money rather than lending it.

But that did not stop Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the authoritarian Saudi monarchy, from pledging in January to invest $600 billion in the United States while Mr. Trump is in office. Not long after that, Mr. Trump called him a “fantastic guy.”

Then the president said he would ask the crown prince to round that figure up to $1 trillion. And bring down the price of oil — the source of the kingdom’s vast wealth — to boot.

“We’ve been very good to them,” Mr. Trump said.

Economists said that Saudi investments in the United States would probably increase during Mr. Trump’s administration, but were unlikely to even approach $1 trillion.

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Indian and Pakistani military leaders held talks on Monday intended to extend a tenuous cease-fire that has halted the most expansive fighting in decades between the two nuclear-armed states.

A sense of normalcy began to return on both sides of their border, two days after a U.S.-mediated truce ended their rapidly escalating military conflict.

Stock markets in both countries jumped on the first day of trading since the agreement was reached. India announced the resumption of civilian flights at over 30 airports in the north of the country, while in Pakistan, the authorities said that all airports were open.

The situation along the two countries’ extensive boundary, however, remained uncertain, with tens of thousands of people still displaced. There were no reports of a major breach on Sunday night, the second evening of the cease-fire. But on Monday, brief drone sightings and explosions were reported in parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

For most of last week, the two countries were engaged in intense fighting that brought cross-border shelling, drone warfare and claims from both sides that they had inflicted damage on the other’s military bases.

Pope Leo XIV used his first audience with news outlets on Monday to appeal to journalists to help cool the heated language of today’s media landscape.

The comments once again echoed some of the themes highlighted by his predecessor, Pope Francis, as Leo backed a free press to enable informed decisions and renewed his calls for a more peaceful world.

“Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression,” Leo told more than 1,000 journalists, including the Vatican press corps, who were gathered in an auditorium. “We do not need loud, forceful communication but rather communication that is capable of listening,” he added, delivering his address in Italian.

In comments that were likely to win him points with his audience, Leo spoke of the need for people to be informed in order to make sound decisions and of “the precious gift of free speech and of the press.”

Leo took the stage to a rapturous ovation from members of the news media, some of whom will report on his papacy and others who were in Rome to cover the death and funeral of Francis as well as the conclave that elected the new pope.

Leo’s address to the news media, a papal tradition, was frequently interrupted by applause. He began with an impromptu joke in English, thanking journalists for their applause but saying he hoped they would not fall asleep during his remarks.

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A Kurdish militia group that has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades said on Monday that it would lay down its arms and disband, a decision that could reshape Turkish politics and reverberate in neighboring countries.

The announcement by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by its Kurdish initials, P.K.K., came a few months after its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, urged the group to disarm and disband. In his February message, he said the group’s armed struggle had outlived its initial purpose and that further progress in the struggle for Kurdish rights could be achieved through politics.

The P.K.K. began as a secessionist group that sought to create an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority. More recently, it has said that it sought greater rights for Kurds inside Turkey. It is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and other countries.

In a statement on Monday, the group echoed Mr. Ocalan’s call, saying that it had “carried the Kurdish issue to a level where it can be solved by democratic politics, and the P.K.K. has completed its mission in that sense.”

A recent congress by the group’s leaders in northern Iraq had decided to end “activities under the name of the P.K.K.’’

The group said Mr. Ocalan should lead the process of disarming, and it called on Turkey’s Parliament to take part. The move could end a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

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The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by its Kurdish acronym P.K.K., said on Monday that it would lay down arms and disband, ending a decades-long armed insurgency against the Turkish state.

The announcement came several months after the group’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, urged his followers to disarm and disband. The move could reshape Turkish politics and reverberate in neighboring countries.

The P.K.K. began as a secessionist group that sought to create an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority. More recently, it said it sought greater rights for Kurds inside Turkey.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in four decades of conflict, both in P.K.K. attacks on military and civilian targets, and in Turkish military operations against the militants and the communities that harbor them. Turkey, the United States and other countries consider the group a terrorist organization.

Here is what to know about the P.K.K. and its conflict with Turkey.

What is the P.K.K.?

The group began fighting the Turkish state in the early 1980s, originally seeking independence for the Kurds, who are believed to make up about 15 percent of Turkey’s population.

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Hamas released Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage it held in Gaza, on Monday evening, after mediators brokered a deal between the group and the United States that largely circumvented the Israeli government.

Mr. Alexander’s release came on the eve of a visit by President Trump to the Middle East, and was portrayed by Hamas officials as an attempt to secure U.S. support for a wider deal to end the war.

Mr. Alexander, 21, was among roughly 250 people seized and taken to Gaza during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the war in Gaza. A dual Israeli American national serving in the Israeli Army, he was captured from a military post that morning. He grew up in New Jersey and moved to Israel after high school to join the military.

In images and video that the Israeli authorities shared on Monday following his release, Mr. Alexander, looking pale but smiling, enthusiastically greeted his family with hugs and exclamations of joy. According to reports in Israeli news media, the released captive said that he had been held in a cage in a Hamas underground tunnel with his hands and feet bound and ate little.

Unlike most other hostages, Mr. Alexander was released without a formally announced cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, highlighting the failure of efforts to secure a broader truce between the two sides. Hamas still holds at least 20 living hostages — along with some 40 dead bodies, including those of several Americans — but it is reluctant to release more of them unless Israel agrees to hold negotiations to end the war. Israel wants the right to continue the war after any future truce, leading to an impasse in the talks.

Edan Alexander, 21, who was believed to be the last living American citizen held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, was released on Monday.

The militant group handed over Mr. Alexander as part of a deal negotiated directly with the United States, with minimal Israeli involvement. President Trump had focused on his release since a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in March.

On Monday, Mr. Trump said Mr. Alexander was being released and congratulated “his wonderful parents, family, and friends!” The release comes as Mr. Trump is set to travel to the Middle East.

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Ukraine and its allies on Monday sought to pile pressure on Russia to agree to an unconditional truce, with European leaders threatening to immediately impose a new round of sanctions and President Volodymyr Zelensky challenging President Vladimir V. Putin to meet him in Turkey on Thursday.

President Trump raised the stakes, suggesting he might take part in such a meeting — an idea quickly seized on by Mr. Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader, who has been trying to align himself with a U.S. leader who has at times seemed hostile to him.

“I supported Donald Trump with the idea of ​​a complete and unconditional cease-fire,” Mr. Zelensky said in a statement on Monday night. “I supported President Trump with the idea of ​​direct talks with Putin.”

He added: “Of course, all of us in Ukraine would like President Trump to be there with us — at this meeting in Turkey. This is the right idea.”

The Kremlin declined to comment on whether Mr. Putin would take Mr. Zelensky up on his challenge, issued on Sunday, to meet personally on Thursday, and did not immediately respond to the suggestion that Mr. Trump might attend a summit of the three leaders.

But Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, picked up on Mr. Zelensky’s proposal, saying, “Don’t underestimate Thursday in Turkey.” He then suggested that he might alter his travel plans, which have him in the Middle East that day, and go to Turkey to take part in the meeting, depending on how the hoped-for talks go.

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