U.S., Russia hold fresh talks in Istanbul on restoring diplomatic missionsU.S. and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on Thursday for a second round of talks aimed at restoring normal operations of diplomatic missions in each other's country.The discussions are taking place at the Russian consulate in the Turkish city. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the talks are being led by Russia's newly appointed ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter.The primary focus of the discussions is to address issues affecting the functioning of the embassies and consulates in each other's country. The U.S. State Department has emphasized that the talks are limited strictly to diplomatic operations.Russia, U.S. swap prisonersRussia and the United States on Thursday conducted a prisoner swap facilitated by the United Arab Emirates, said the Russian Federal Security Service."On April 10, at the Abu Dhabi International Airport, with UAE mediation, Russian citizen Artur Petrov was returned home," the security service said in a statement.Detained by U.S. authorities in Cyprus in 2023, Petrov was extradited to the United States in 2024 on charges of violating export control laws. He was facing up to 20 years in prison in the United States.He was exchanged for U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina, who was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 12 years in a Russian penal colony.China urges fair dialogue, not threats, to fix trade dispute with U.S.Pressure and threats from the United States will not resolve the ongoing China-U.S. trade dispute, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday, calling for a return to fair dialogue.Ministry spokesperson He Yongqian told a press briefing that while China remains open to talks, any talks must be based on mutual respect and conducted on an equal footing.If the United States is bent on waging a trade war, China will fight to the end, the spokesperson said."Pressure, threats and blackmail are not the right way to deal with China. We hope that the two countries will meet each other halfway and work towards resolving differences through dialogue and consultation, guided by the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation," He said.China, EU vow joint efforts to uphold multilateral trading systemChina and the European Union vowed to jointly uphold the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, China's commerce ministry said in a statement released Thursday.The statement came after China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic held a talk via video on Tuesday, during which they discussed various issues, including enhancing China-EU economic and trade cooperation and responses to the U.S. imposition of so-called "reciprocal tariffs."During their talks, Wang noted that the U.S. "reciprocal tariffs" seriously violate the legitimate interests of other countries, breach the WTO rules, undermine the rules-based multilateral trading system, and disrupt the stability of the global economic order.China to cut U.S. film imports amid tariff hikesChina on Thursday announced the plan to moderately reduce the number of U.S. films imported.A spokesperson for the China Film Administration said that the adjustment follows market principles and reflects audience preferences, as the United States' recent hikes in tariffs on Chinese imports are bound to impact Chinese audiences' interest in U.S. movies.As the second-largest film market in the world, China has always pursued a high level of opening-up, and will introduce more excellent films from other countries to meet market demand, said the spokesperson.S. Korea's opposition ex-leader announces bid for presidencyLee Jae-myung, ex-leader of South Korea's main liberal opposition Democratic Party, announced his bid for a snap presidential election via a video message on Thursday.Lee resigned as party leader on Wednesday amid widespread expectations for his presidential run.A snap presidential election was set for June 3 following the constitutional court's removal of former President Yoon Suk-yeol from office on April 4 over Yoon's short-lived martial law imposition last December.Lee, who lost the 2022 presidential election to Yoon by the country's narrowest margin, had been broadly seen as the most powerful contender for the snap election.Israel kills at least 40 in Gaza in 24 hrsAt least 40 Palestinians were killed and 146 others injured in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip within the last 24 hours, local health authorities reported Thursday.In a press statement, the Gaza-based health authorities said the victims' bodies and the injured had been transferred to hospitals.According to the statement, the number of Palestinians killed since Israel resumed its Gaza offensive on March 18 has risen to 1,522, bringing the overall death toll since the start of the war in October 2023 to 50,886, in addition to 115,875 injuries.