President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday that top administration officials will meet with European officials this week about how to end the war in Ukraine, nearly three years after Russia launched an all-out invasion.

Less than a day earlier, the New York Post reported that Trump had a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss steps toward a negotiated solution. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Trump declined to discuss his reported phone conversation with Putin.

“I don’t want to do that. We’re trying to end that war. It’s a war that would have never happened if I were president, it would have never happened, but we’re making progress. But I can’t tell you,” he said.

Asked to clarify whether his conversations with Putin took place before he took office or after, Trump said, “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it. And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended. It’s going to end.”

There was no immediate confirmation of the call by the Kremlin.

Waltz: Europe needs to take bigger role in the conflict

In a television interview, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said the Russian economy is not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table. Waltz also underscored that the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine. He said European allies will also need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine going forward.

U.S. Marine one of dead in Philippine air crash

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. >> A U.S. Marine from California was identified by military officials Sunday as one of four people killed when a plane contracted by the U.S. military crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines.

Sgt. Jacob M. Durham died Thursday in the crash of an aircraft that was conducting a routine mission “providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies,” officials at Camp Pendleton, California, said in a statement. Officials said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Durham’s age and the California city where he was from were not included in the statement. Officials did not immediately respond to emails requesting that information.

Three defense contractors also were killed in the crash, military officials have said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines confirmed the crash of a light plane in Maguindanao del Sur province. The bodies of the four people were retrieved from the wreckage in Ampatuan town, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a safety officer of Maguindanao del Sur.

U.S. forces have been deployed in a Philippine military camp in the country’s south for decades to help provide training and advice to Filipino forces battling Muslim militants. The region is home to minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

Libya uncovers mass graves of migrants

CAIRO >> Libya authorities have uncovered nearly 50 bodies from two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the latest tragedy involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.

The first mass grave with 19 bodies was found Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a statement, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.

Authorities posted images on its Facebook page showing police officers and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were wrapped in blankets.

The al-Abreen charity, which helps migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were apparently shot and killed before being buried.

A separate mass grave, with at least 30 bodies, was also found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said nearly 70 people were buried in the grave, he added. Authorities were still searching the area.

All 10 bodies recovered in Alaska air crash

JUNEAU, Alaska >> The remains of all 10 people killed when their small plane crashed into ice on the Bering Sea have been recovered, authorities said.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department made the announcement on its Facebook page Saturday afternoon. Recovery crews had been racing to recover the bodies before a winter storm was expected to hit the region.

“All ten individuals aboard the Bering Air plane have been officially brought home,” the fire department wrote in the social media post at about 3 p.m.

Crews were still working on recovering the aircraft, the fire department said.

The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet to the hub community of Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon. It was found the next day after an extensive search with all nine passengers and the pilot dead, making it one of the deadliest plane crashes in the state in 25 years.

Swift storm dumps snow across Northeast

CONCORD, N.H. >> New Englanders stocked up on both Super Bowl snacks and staples like bread and milk this weekend ahead of a fast-moving storm that dropped up to a foot (30 cm) of light, fluffy snow.

The parking lot was packed and the checkout lines were long at a Market Basket grocery store in Epping, New Hampshire, on Saturday, WMUR-TV reported. None of the shoppers seemed to panic about the storm, which cleared out by Sunday morning well ahead of kickoff time.

Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, said the storm moved from the Great Lakes into the Northeast, with accumulated totals of 6 to 12 inches in upstate New York and New England and 3-5 inches around Boston and New York City.

While northern areas enjoyed the powder, the snowfall in New York City was wet and dense, clogging storm drains and creating ponds of water at sidewalk intersections in Northern Manhattan.

Airports in Boston and New York saw increased flight delays and cancelations Sunday.

Egypt unveils plans for Arab summit

CAIRO >> Egypt announced Sunday that it will host an emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss “new and dangerous developments” after U.S. President Donald Trump proposed to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Trump’s suggestion, made at a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, infuriated the Arab world, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — key allies of Washington.

Both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II dismissed Trump’s call to resettle 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza and for the U.S. to take ownership of the enclave, but Trump claims that they would eventually accept it.

A statement from Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said it would host the Arab League summit in Cairo following talks at the highest level in Arab countries in recent days, “including the state of Palestine that asked to hold the summit in order to discuss new and dangerous developments for the Palestinian cause.”

Ecuador holds its presidential election

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador >> Polls closed in Ecuador’s presidential election Sunday, which shaped up to be a repeat of the 2023 race, when voters chose a young, conservative millionaire over the leftist protégée of the country’s most influential president this century.

President Daniel Noboa and Luisa González were the clear front-runners among the pool of 16 candidates. All promised voters to reduce the widespread crime that pushed their lives into an unnerving new normal four years ago.

The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. So many voters have become crime victims that their personal and collective losses will be a determining factor in deciding whether a third president in four years can turn Ecuador around or if Noboa deserves more time in office.

Ecuador’s National Electoral Council reported that more than 83% of the roughly 13.7 million eligible voters cast ballots. Electo.

— From news service reports