President Donald Trump upended three years of US policy toward Ukraine on Wednesday, saying that he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war following a sudden prisoner swap. Trump said he spent more than an hour on the phone with Putin and "I think we're on the way to getting peace." He noted that he later spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but he was noncommittal about whether Ukraine would be an equal participant in US negotiations with Russia.

"I think President Putin wants peace and President Zelenskyy wants peace and I want peace," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I just want to see people stop being killed."

Of his conversation with Putin, Trump said, "People didn't really know what President Putin's thoughts were. But I think I can say with great confidence, he wants to see it ended also, so that's good - and we're going to work toward getting it ended as fast as possible."

The BJP recorded an emphatic victory in the Delhi assembly elections, winning 48 out of 70 seats and regaining control of India's National Capital Territory, the centre of its federal structure, after 27 years. New Delhi was that one feather which had eluded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cap. Modi led the BJP to a huge victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, but just months later, the saffron party, led by him, lost to the AAP, then a political newbie. Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Admi Party had managed to achieve quite remarkable growth over the past 12 years, given traditional barriers to entry in Indian politics.

With its victory in the Punjab assembly elections in 2022, it was even showing signs of expanding its footprint at the national level. But now it has lost the citadel where it came up with its much-publicised Delhi model governance. Kejriwal's own loss in the New Delhi seat acting as a huge moral defeat for the party.

A plan for Russia to establish its first naval base in Africa will go ahead, Sudan's foreign minister confirmed, after years of delays over the Red Sea military port. If the agreement is implemented, Russia would join the US and China in the region. They have bases to the south in Djibouti. The announcement came during a visit by the Sudanese foreign minister, Ali Youssef Ahmed al-Sharif, to Moscow where he met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. After their meeting, Sharif said the two countries were in "complete agreement" on establishing a Russian base "and there are no obstacles".

The Red Sea is one of the world's most strategically important waterways, connecting the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean. About 12% of global trade passes through it. Sudan first floated the idea of allowing Russia to have a naval facility on its coast in 2017 during a trip to Sochi by Omar al-Bashir. A deal was eventually signed in 2020 that reportedly permitted Russia to keep up to four navy ships, including nuclear-powered ones, in Sudan for a period of 25 years. At the time, a draft agreement said the bases were for logistical purposes and were "defensive and not aimed against other countries".

Merger talks between Honda and Nissan have collapsed after the firms failed to agree on a multi-billion-dollar tie-up. The Japanese carmakers, along with junior partner Mitsubishi, had aimed to combine their businesses to fight back against competition from rival firms, especially in China. The merger would have created an auto group worth $60bn (£48bn), and the world's fourth-largest by vehicle sales after Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai.

The companies said they would continue their partnership on electric vehicles. The planned tie-up was seen as providing Nissan, which for a while was Japan's second-largest car company, with crucial relief following years of slowing sales and turmoil involving its top executives. Honda entered negotiations in a leading position. It remains a popular brand globally, producing and selling more cars than Nissan.