Sudan 's military said Friday it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting.

The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, represents a major symbolic victory for Sudan's military against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. However, it likely doesn't mean the end of the war as the RSF holds territory in Sudan's western Darfur region and elsewhere.

Ukraine is hoping to secure a partial ceasefire at upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia during which U.S. officials will meet separately with Russian and Ukrainian representatives, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Friday.

"We still want to agree on a ceasefire, at least on what we have proposed," the source said, referring to a Russian and Ukrainian halt on strikes on energy sites, civilian infrastructure and attacks in the Black Sea, adding that the Ukrainian delegation on Monday would be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.

Flights to and from London's Heathrow Airport were canceled Friday after a fire at a nearby substation knocked out power to Europe's busiest airport, disrupting travel plans for hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Here's a look at what's happening and its impact on air travel.

President Donald Trump 's executive order to facilitate the closure of the U.S. Education Department is met with protests and court challenges. Elon Musk focuses his attention on the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that the billionaire cost-cutter will discuss "innovation, efficiencies & smarter production." Leaders at dozens of universities facing Trump administration investigations scramble to distance themselves from a nonprofit that helped Black and Latino students pursue business degrees. And the arrests of Canadian and European visitors at U.S. borders has some saying no one is safe to come to America as a tourist anymore.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey would not be cowed by "street terror" after days of widespread protests over the detention of Istanbul's powerful opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.

"Turkey will not surrender to street terror," Erdogan said, as the main opposition CHP called for nationwide protests later on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged "joint pressure" on Moscow after it launched a "massive" overnight aerial attack, firing 214 drones and several guided bombs at cities across Ukraine.

"It is joint pressure on Russia, along with tougher sanctions and stronger defense support for our country, that paves the way to ending this kind of terror and Russia's prolongation of the war," Zelensky said in a post on social media.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration officials not to deport a Georgetown scholar who was detained by the Trump Administration and accused of spreading Hamas propaganda in the latest battle over speech on U.S. college campuses.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that Indian national Badar Khan Suri "shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order."

Senior officers from countries across Europe and beyond will meet Thursday at a military headquarters on the outskirts of London to flesh out plans for an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine as details of a partial ceasefire are worked out.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the "coalition of the willing" plan, led by Britain and France, is moving into an "operational phase." But it's unclear how many countries are willing to send troops, or whether there will be any ceasefire to protect.

Iran's foreign ministry has summoned the British and German envoys over their calls to extend the mandate of a U.N. fact-finding mission investigating mass protests in 2022, local media reported Thursday.

A French citizen imprisoned in Iran for over 880 days has been freed and is back home, as was another French citizen held under house arrest in Tehran, French officials said Thursday. Their liberation came as France and the rest of Europe are trying to jumpstart talks with Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

U.S. President Donald Trump has sent a letter to Iran's 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seeking negotiations. Trump is also pressuring Tehran over its support of Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels as the American military carries out an intense new campaign of airstrikes targeting the group.