Ukrainian forces have managed to blunt Russia’s offensive in and around the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, where the situation is stabilising, commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhniy said on Saturday.

Russian forces attacked northern and southern stretches of the front in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, even as Kyiv said Moscow’s assault was flagging near the city of Bakhmut.

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said she had expressed concerns over the South China Sea and tensions in the Taiwan Strait during talks with her Chinese counterpart at the end of a visit to Beijing.

China often makes promises in exchange for recognition that remain unfulfilled, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said as Honduras moves ahead with ending its long-standing ties with Taiwan in favour of China.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he was happy his recent ban on the use of Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from government-issued devices meant his children could no longer access the platform.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented a united front against authoritarian regimes as Biden visited the Canadian capital days after the leaders of China and Russia held a Moscow summit.

Some 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, many elderly and with disabilities, are clinging on to existence in horrific circumstances in and around the besieged city of Bakhmut, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

King Charles’ first state visit to France as British monarch, postponed on Friday because of widespread social unrest, was supposed to be an occasion celebrating a new chapter of harmony in relations between London and Paris.

Spain’s first major wildfire of the year raged in the eastern Valencia region, destroying more than 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of forest and forcing 1,500 residents to abandon their homes, authorities said.

India’s current account deficit is likely to have improved in the final quarter of 2022 from a nine-year high in July-September as the goods trade gap moderated and net services exports rose, a Reuters poll found.

The Italian coast guard has rescued around 750 migrants in two separate operations off the country’s southern coastline, hours after at least five people died and 33 were missing in an attempted sea crossing from Tunisia.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed two laws intended to restrict social media use by minors, becoming the first U.S. state to require parental permission for anyone under 18 to use such platforms as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.