Reuters: World

Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza, enclave's government media office says At least 42 people were killed in Israeli attacks on districts of Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian enclave on Saturday, the director of the Hamas-run government media office said. One Israeli strike on houses in Al-Shati, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, killed 24 people, Ismail Al-Thawabta told Reuters. Another 18 Palestinians were killed in a strike on houses in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood. read more

Trump to speak to Christian group, then court Black vote in Philadelphia Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will speak on Saturday to an influential group of conservative Christian activists who advocate for restricting abortion, before heading to Philadelphia for a rally aimed at courting Black voters. The former president is scheduled to give the keynote speech at an event organized by the Faith & Freedom Coalition, a group overseen by longtime Trump ally Ralph Reed, at 1:30 p.m. ET (1730 GMT) in Washington. read more

Death toll from India tainted liquor tragedy rises to 47 The death toll from the latest case of tainted liquor in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has climbed to 47, with over 100 people still in hospital, a government official said on Friday. Since Wednesday more than 150 people, suffering from vomiting, stomach aches and diarrhoea, have needed treatment after drinking methanol-mixed liquor made in the Kallakurichi district, about 250 km (150 miles) from the state capital Chennai. read more

Putin says Russia may deliver weapons to North Korea Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia might supply weapons to North Korea in what he suggested would be a mirror response to the Western arming of Ukraine. Putin was speaking to reporters in Vietnam, a day after visiting nuclear-armed North Korea and signing a mutual defence agreement with its leader, Kim Jong Un. Western countries have shunned North Korea as a pariah state because of its development of nuclear and ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and view the growing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang with concern. read more

North Korea, Russia sign pact to give all available military help if other is attacked North Korea and Russia have agreed to provide immediate military assistance if either faces armed aggression, according to the full text of a landmark pact released on Thursday by Pyongyang after a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hours after Putin departed for his next stop, Vietnam, North Korea's state media published the "Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership", which effectively revives a defunct mutual defence agreement from the 1960s. read more

Russia's Putin and North Korea's Kim sign mutual defence pact Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal with North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Wednesday that included a mutual defence pledge, one of Russia's most significant moves in Asia for years that Kim said amounted to an "alliance". Putin's pledge overhauls Russia's entire post-Soviet policy on North Korea just as the United States and its Asian allies try to gauge how far Russia could deepen support for the only country to have tested a nuclear weapon this century. read more

Israel and Lebanon escalate rhetoric as US tries to prevent war Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned on Tuesday that a decision on an all-out war with Hezbollah was coming soon, even as the United States tries to avert any escalation. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was sent to Lebanon to try and cool tensions following an increase in cross-border fire along Lebanon's southern frontier that has escalated to Hezbollah hinting it could attack Haifa, Israel's third-largest city. read more

Russia's Putin to visit Vietnam, sparking US rebuke of Hanoi Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Hanoi this week, Vietnamese and Russian state media said on Monday, highlighting Communist-ruled Vietnam's loyalty to Russia and triggering a U.S. rebuke. The visit follows Hanoi avoiding a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland last weekend, while sending its deputy foreign minister to a BRICS meeting in Russia earlier last week. Putin, who was sworn in for a fifth time just over a month ago, is expected to meet Vietnam's new president, To Lam, and other leaders during the two-day visit to Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday, officials said. read more

Netanyahu disbands his inner war cabinet, Israeli official says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the six-member war cabinet, an Israeli official said on Monday, in a widely expected move that came after the departure from government of the centrist former general Benny Gantz. Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer who had been in the war cabinet. read more

Israel pauses military activity along southern Gaza road to facilitate aid The Israeli military said on Sunday it would hold daily tactical pauses in military activity along a main road in southern Gaza to allow more aid to flow into the enclave, where international aid organisations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis. Fighting in the city of Rafah, where Israel is targeting the remaining brigades of the militant Islamist Hamas movement, would continue, the military said. read more

World leaders join Ukraine summit in test of Kyiv's diplomatic clout World leaders gathered at a Swiss mountain resort on Saturday to try to build support for Ukraine's peace proposals at a summit skipped by U.S. President Joe Biden, shunned by China and dismissed as a waste of time by Moscow. More than 90 countries will take part, but China's absence in particular has dimmed hopes the summit would show Russia as globally isolated, while recent military reverses have put Kyiv on the back foot. The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has also diverted the world's attention from Ukraine. read more

Putin demands more Ukrainian land to end war, terms swiftly rejected by Kyiv President Vladimir Putin said on Friday 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. On the eve of a conference in Switzerland to which Russia has not been invited, Putin set out maximalist conditions wholly at odds with the terms demanded by Ukraine, apparently reflecting Moscow's growing confidence that its forces have the upper hand in the war. read more