World

CANBERRA,  (Reuters) – Australia and China will take steps to improve military communication to avoid incidents, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after meeting Premier Li Qiang today, in the first visit to the country by a Chinese premier in seven years.

BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland (Reuters) – Western powers and their allies at a summit in Switzerland denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Sunday, but they failed to persuade major non-aligned states to join their final statement, and no country came forward to host a sequel.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian special forces freed two prison guards and shot dead six inmates linked to the Islamic State militant group who had taken them hostage at a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov on Sunday, Russian media said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthis said on Sunday that they had attacked two civilian ships along with an American destroyer in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, their latest effort to disrupt shipping in what they say is support for Palestinians in Gaza.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – President Joe Biden slammed the U.S. Supreme Court as “out of kilter” at a glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles yesterday with former President Barack Obama and top Hollywood celebrities that has raised over $30 million.

BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland,  (Reuters) – World leaders gathered at a Swiss Alpine resort yesterday to seek broader consensus for Ukraine’s peace proposals at a summit shunned by China and dismissed as a waste of time by Russia, which pushed its own rival ceasefire plans from afar.

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, (Reuters) –  Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the military said, as forces continued to push in and around the southern city of Rafah and strikes hit several areas of Gaza, killing at least 19 Palestinians.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Three British opinion polls released late yesterday presented a grim picture for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, and one pollster warned that the party faced “electoral extinction” in July 4’s election.

(Reuters) – Inmates in 20 jails and detention facilities in Venezuela have ended a week-long hunger strike to protest against conditions and delays in judicial reviews after reaching a deal with the government, a non-governmental organization said on Saturday.

STOCKHOLM,  (Reuters) – Sweden and Iran carried out a prisoner exchange yesterday, officials said, with Sweden freeing a former Iranian official convicted for his role in a mass execution in the 1980s while Iran released two Swedes being held there.

(Reuters) – As many as 10 people, including children, were shot and wounded at a city-run water park near Detroit last evening, police said, calling the incident random gunfire.

BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland,  (Reuters) – World leaders began gathering at a Swiss mountain resort today to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine and sketch out a path to peace, but notable absences such as China will blunt the summit’s potential impact.

NAIROBI,  (Reuters) – A magistrate in Kenya who was shot by a police officer as she presided over a court session has died, the country’s chief justice, Martha Koome, announced today.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, (Reuters) – The African National Congress and its largest rival, the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance, agreed yesterday to work together in South Africa’s new government of national unity, a step change after 30 years of ANC rule.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said today Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, (Reuters) – The African National Congress and its largest rival, the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance, agreed today to work together in South Africa’s new government of national unity, a step change after 30 years of ANC majority rule.

BORGO EGNAZIA, Italy  (Reuters) – Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) developed democracies will commit to accelerating their transition away from fossil fuels during this decade, according to a draft of a statement to be issued at the end of their ongoing summit in Italy.

BARI, Italy, (Reuters) – Group of Seven (G7) leaders hold a final day of talks at their annual summit today, with China topping the agenda before Pope Francis puts in a historic appearance to discuss artificial intelligence (AI).

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Hezbollah said it had launched rockets and weaponised drones at nine Israeli military sites in a coordinated attack yesterday, ramping up hostilities on Lebanon’s southern border for the second consecutive day.