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Chinese leader Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron meeting in China last month. Photo: Jacques Witt/Pool/ReutersSome U.S. and European officials said they believe that Ukraine’s planned spring offensive could pave the way for negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow by the end of the year, and that China could help bring Russia to the table. The willingness to encourage negotiations and seek out a role for China in talks represents a shift in Western thinking, particularly in the U.S., which has been highly skeptical of any involvement for Beijing given China’s longstanding support for Moscow. Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly expressed cautious optimism recently that Beijing could help defuse the conflict.

The Biden administration on Thursday condemned the detention of an American Wall Street Journal reporter in Russia for what Moscow described as espionage, the first such case of an American journalist detained for allegations of spying since the Cold War. President Biden was briefed on the detention of reporter Evan Gershkovich, National Security Council Strategic Coordinator John Kirby told reporters. He reiterated earlier U.S. State Department warnings that Americans are urged to avoid traveling to Russia or to leave immediately.

The U.S. is looking to sell 40 new F-16s to Turkey, officials said. The Biden administration is preparing to seek congressional approval for a $20 billion sale of new F-16 jet fighters to Turkey along with a separate sale of next-generation F-35 warplanes to Greece, in what would be among the largest foreign weapons sales in recent years, according to U.S. officials. Congress’s approval is contingent on Turkey’s signoff on Finland and Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the officials said. Turkey has blocked the two countries’ applications over objections to their ties to Kurdish separatist groups. Both countries ended decades of neutrality by deciding to join NATO last year in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Talking turkey is a pastime in the halls of government around the world. Yet what to call Turkey, the country, is something many can’t agree on. In April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked the international community to recognize his nation by its traditional name, spelled “Türkiye” and pronounced Tour-key-yeh.

President Biden pushed back on claims by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that a missile that killed two people in Poland this week wasn’t fired from Ukraine. Just after midnight Wednesday, after stepping off Marine One at the White House, Mr. Biden was asked about Mr. Zelensky’s claims that the missile wasn’t Ukrainian. Soon after the missile landed Tuesday, Mr. Zelensky said, “Russian missiles hit Poland.”

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