Author: Reuters

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his conversation with Vladimir Putin on Friday had given no indication of a shift in the Russian President’s thinking on the war in Ukraine, but defended his much-criticised decision to phone the Kremlin. Scholz’s hour-long call with Putin, their first direct communication in almost two years, comes three months before snap elections in which the wildly unpopular chancellor faces a stiff challenge from populists of left and right who are demanding a resumption of diplomacy. Critics, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the call was a breach of Western solidarity for the sake of domestic…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his conversation with Vladimir Putin on Friday had given no indication of a shift in the Russian President’s thinking on the war in Ukraine but defended his much-criticised decision to phone the Kremlin. Speaking from Berlin airport on Sunday, immediately before his departure for the G20 summit in Brazil, Scholz said it had been worth talking to Putin to dispel any illusions he might harbour that the West was about to abandon its support for Ukraine. He added, with reference to Donald Trump’s imminent return to the U.S. presidency, that it would also not be…

Jayson Tatum made a 3-pointer as time expired in overtime to give the Boston Celtics a 126-123 victory over the visiting Toronto Raptors on Saturday night. Tatum had 24 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in the win. Jaylen Brown led Boston with 27 points. Jakob Poeltl tossed in a career-high 35 points for Toronto, which fell to 0-8 in road games this season. Poeltl, who was 16 of 19 from the floor, also had 12 rebounds. RJ Barrett added 25 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists for the Raptors, who have lost seven games in a row and 11…

Yemen’s Houthi forces attacked “a vital target” in Israel’s Red Sea port city of Eilat with a number of drones, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Saturday. The armed group has launched dozens of attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea region since November in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas. “These operations will not stop until the aggression stops, the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted, and the aggression on Lebanon stops,” Saree added in a televised speech. The Houthi attacks have upended global trade by forcing ship owners to…

With Donald Trump’s imminent return as U.S. president looming over the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping said the region should push for more free trade as Asia-Pacific cooperation faces “rising protectionism”, according to Chinese state media. “We should dismantle the high wall that divides the flow of trade, investment, technology and services, and maintain a stable and smooth industrial supply chain,” Xi said on Saturday, according to a transcript of the speech published by state television CCTV. The speech was part of Xi’s week-long diplomatic tour of South America that began earlier this…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will not attend the COP29 U.N. climate summit in Azerbaijan due to “security reasons”, the presidency office said in a statement on Saturday.

An Israeli strike killed 10 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others on Saturday at Abu Assi school, currently being used to house displaced families in western Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, medics told Reuters.

Iran on Saturday “categorically” denied that its United Nations envoy had met with U.S. billionnaire Elon Musk in New York, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported. A Foreign Minister spokesperson “while categorically denying claims made in some American media about a meeting between Elon Musk and Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, expressed surprise at its wide coverage by the American media”, IRNA said. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Musk, who is an advisor to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations on Monday.

Russian forces have captured the villages of Makarivka and Leninskoye in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing the Russian Defence Ministry.

Jake Paul beat boxing legend Mike Tyson by unanimous decision to win an intergenerational heavyweight battle in Texas on Friday that failed to live up to its enormous hype. The bout between the 27-year-old social media influencer-turned-prizefighter Paul and the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson was streamed live on Netflix and played out in front of a sold-out crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Those fans were left largely disappointed as Tyson showed his age and was never able to generate any offense against his younger opponent, landing just 18 punches to Paul’s 78. “First and foremost, Mike Tyson -…