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In the news today: The Trump administration’s Ukraine peace effort and the key figures pushing it; Pope Leo XIV takes a high-stakes foreign trip; and Trump’s role in rising tension between China and Japan. Also, what happens when people adopt turkeys instead of eating them.
Morning Wire will be on hiatus tomorrow in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Be sure you are signed up for AP News Alerts so you don't miss any major breaking news. |
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) |
Trump’s Ukraine peace plan ignites diplomatic flurry but major hurdles lie ahead |
The Russia-Ukraine war has seen almost four years of failed peace plans, blueprints and high-level summits. A new U.S. push to end the fighting has set off the latest flurry of diplomacy. Read more. |
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Pope Leo XIV visits Turkey and Lebanon on first foreign trip |
Pope Leo XIV is embarking on a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history’s first American pope on the road. Read more. |
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Leo is fulfilling a trip the late Pope Francis planned to make, to mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church in Turkey. In Lebanon, he’ll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community as well as Lebanese of all faiths who are still demanding justice over the 2020 Beirut port blast.
The main impetus for traveling to Turkey, the first stop in the Nov. 27-Dec. 2 trip, is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.
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On Leo’s last day, Dec. 2, he will spend time in silent prayer at the site of the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port blast. The explosion tore through the Lebanese capital, killing at least 218 people, wounding more than 6,000 and devastating large swaths of Beirut.
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Japan’s leader says Trump called her as dispute with China rumbles on |
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who recently triggered China’s fury with a comment suggesting a Chinese move against Taiwan could prompt a Japanese military response, said Tuesday that she received a call from President Donald Trump right after he spoke with China’s leader. Read more. |
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Takaichi, a hard-line conservative, said Trump expressed his friendship to her in a call he made to her Tuesday after a phone conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “President Trump told me that he and I are extremely good friends and that I should call him any time,” Takaichi said. She did not say whether they discussed her Taiwan comment.
Only weeks into the job, Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, infuriated China by suggesting Japan could respond militarily if China were to try to seize control of Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing says must come under its rule.
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China responded with anger and by putting economic pressure on Japan. On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Takaichi “crossed a red line.” He said China would “resolutely respond” to Japan’s actions and that all countries have the responsibility to “prevent the resurgence of Japanese militarism.”
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