Russia bombarded Ukraine’s second-largest city with massive strikes in the early hours of Saturday, its mayor said, one night after Moscow carried out one of the war’s largest aerial assaults on Ukraine. Russia has conducted extensive attacks on Ukraine in recent days, in what is being viewed as retaliation for an audacious drone operation by Kyiv that debilitated more than a third of Moscow’s strategic cruise missile carriers. The northeastern city of Kharkiv – which sits about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Russian border – was shaken by “at least 40 explosions” on Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding more than a dozen, according to a Telegram post by Mayor Igor Terekhov. “Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the full-scale war,” Terekhov said. “The enemy is striking simultaneously with missiles, (drones) and guided aerial bombs. This is outright terror against peaceful…

The body of a Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, who was abducted alive during the October 7 attacks was recovered from southern Gaza in a military operation on Friday, according to a statement from the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security service. The announcement comes just days after Israel recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages from Gaza. Pinta, 35, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel where he had been working in agriculture, according to an Israeli military official, who said it is estimated that he was killed during the first months of captivity. Pinta was a husband and father working in Israel to support his family in Thailand, the official said. “We will not rest until all the hostages, living and deceased, are returned home,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Pinta was abducted by the Mujahideen, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, a…

The fragile trade truce between the United States and China has, for now, been pulled back from the brink. US President Donald Trump finally got his long-anticipated phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the two agreed to resume trade talks that had stalled over accusations from each side that the other had reneged on previous promises. Thursday’s 90-minute conversation brought a temporary reprieve from an escalating feud between the superpower rivals, but it offered no clear path toward resolving their deep-rooted divisions – especially over crucial supply chains that both sides consider vital to national security. US officials accused China of backpedaling on its pledge made during May talks in Geneva to ease export restrictions on rare earth minerals critical to a wide range of industries. Beijing, meanwhile, has bristled at Washington’s moves to warn companies against using China’s most advanced AI chips, restrict chip design software…

A young Tibetan controversially appointed by China’s atheist Communist Party as the second-highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism has pledged to make the religion more Chinese. Gyaltsen Norbu was installed by Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 in defiance of the religion’s highest authority the Dalai Lama, whose pick for the role — a six-year-old boy — has since vanished from public view. China has yet to reveal any information on the whereabouts of the missing boy. The Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama is dismissed as an imposter by many Tibetans at home and in exile, but he is often quoted in China’s state-run media toeing the Communist Party’s line and praising its policies in Tibet. In a rare meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, Gyaltsen Norbu vowed to make his own contributions to promoting ethnic unity and systematically advancing “the sinicization of religion,” state news…