STR/EPA

Extremists signal their readiness for peace—just as American troops go home.

Sinan Cakmak/Anzenberger/Redux

It started as a small protest in a tiny park. But Erdogan’s hard line created a movement that won’t disappear quickly.

Faisal Al-Timimi/AFP/Getty

In a surprise announcement, the Afghan insurgents declared they were ready for peace talks. Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau on the new doves.

The Taliban had been preparing for months to make Tuesday’s important and surprise announcement that the Afghan insurgency was prepared to open formal negotiations with the US in the Gulf state of Qatar. The US reacted positively, immediately saying that American negotiators will arrive in Doha, Qatar’s capital, for the talks within the week to begin the dialogue. President Obama called the Taliban’s move “an important first step towards reconciliation,” though he acknowledged that “there will be a lot of bumps in the road.

Victor R. Caivano/AP

Social-media photos, videos, and Vines capture the scene from Rio to São Paulo to Brasilia as Brazilians demonstrate against poor public services, corruption, and police violence.

ITV / Rex USA; Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty

Angelina Jolie’s former body double Eunice Huthart claims that her phone was hacked in 2004 and 2005 by a subsidiary of News Corp. Peter Jukes on the latest allegations.

The phone-hacking scandal that shuttered Rupert Murdoch’s bestselling British Sunday paper The News of the World and led to the resignation and arrests of several of his top U.K. executives has now officially crossed the Atlantic.A civil suit filed June 13 by Eunice Huthart, a former body double for Angelina Jolie, claims that messages from both the actress and members of Huthart’s family were intercepted and occasionally deleted by employees of News Corp.

AP

President Obama will visit Germany this week, 60 years after the first uprising against communism. It could be an opportunity for the president to inspire other activists around the globe.

President Obama’s first official trip to Berlin tomorrow coincides with an important anniversary in European history that is largely unknown to Americans: on June 17, 1953, Germans staged the very first uprising in the communist Eastern Bloc. The 1953 East German uprising began as a strike by 300 construction workers in Berlin and snowballed into demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of citizens all over Germany who demanded labor reform, free elections, and the release of political prisoners.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Russians across the political spectrum are up in arms about the allegation President Putin stole an NFL owner’s Super Bowl ring—but few are shocked. Anna Nemtsova reports.

When NFL owner Robert Kraft said last weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin stole his Super Bowl ring in 2005, he set off an angry debate for pretty much everyone in Russia.  Putin’s supporters called the accusation disgraceful—clearly the ring, a 4.9-carat, diamond-encrusted bauble worth some $25,000, had been a gift to show appreciation for the greatness of Russia and its leader. If it wasn’t a gift, why would Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots, have waited eight years to claim otherwise?Nor did representatives of the anti-Putin opposition understand why a man worth more than $2 billion did not ask for his ring back right away—but that was not what made them angry.

Getty; AP (3)

When the leaders of the G8 countries get together, there is one guarantee: awkward photos. See the best shots from the 39th annual G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Dave M. Benett/Getty

Charles Saatchi built up the world’s largest advertising firm and became the face of the swinging ’80s in London—only to be ousted from his own company. Peter Jukes on the reclusive man who now has been accused of choking his wife in public.

It makes Mad Men’s depiction of admen look tame. The backstory of Charles Saatchi, who was cautioned by police Monday night for allegedly repeatedly grabbing the throat of his wife, celebrity TV chef Nigella Lawson, during dinner at an exclusive London restaurant, is far more extraordinary than Don Draper’s—and he remains even more enigmatic and elusive.Born in Baghdad to Iraqi Jews who fled to London in 1947, Charles and his brother Maurice built up the world’s largest advertising company, with over 600 offices, before they were 40 years old.

Omar Sobhani/Reuters, via Landov

As Afghan soldiers officially take control of their national security, the U.S. has announced a new round of peace talks with the Taliban—the first in over a year. Josh Rogin reports.

The U.S. will have its first formal meeting with the Taliban in more than a year over the next couple of days in Doha, which will be followed by a Taliban meeting with the Afghan High Peace Council, the White House announced Tuesday.The news of the coming U.S.-Taliban meetings followed an announcement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the peace process will be led by the Afghan government—and will move to Afghanistan following an undetermined number of initial rounds of talks to be held in Doha, the capital of the Gulf island nation of Qatar, near Saudi Arabia, where the Taliban has a representative office.