Reuters World News Summary

Beijing announced the sanctions on Tuesday as the U.S. and China began charging additional port fees on each other's vessels, in the latest exchange in a protracted trade war ahead of a planned meeting of the two countries' leaders. Afghan, Pakistani negotiators in Doha for peace talks after fierce clashes Afghanistan and Pakistan will hold peace talks in Doha on Saturday, both sides said, after the South Asia neighbours extended a ceasefire following a week of fierce border clashes.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Dozens still missing days after Mexico's mass flood

Five days after historic floods that killed at least 66 people and affected 100,000 homes, Mexico is still scrambling to get help to the worst-hit communities and locate 75 missing people amid criticism of the government's handling of the crisis. After a year of meteoric approval ratings, the disaster is a test for Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has encountered rare hostile crowds and heckling on visits to affected areas.

Two killed in Ukrainian attack on Russian-controlled part of Kherson region, Russian-installed governor says

Two people have been killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian-occupied part of Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said via his Telegram channel on Saturday. Both victims lived in a temporary accommodation centre for evacuees, Saldo said.

China sanctions on Hanwha threaten South Korea-US shipbuilding ties, officials say

China's sanctions on U.S.-linked units of shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean threaten to impact ambitious plans for shipbuilding cooperation between Seoul and Washington by disrupting supplies of Chinese equipment and materials, officials in Seoul said on Friday. Beijing announced the sanctions on Tuesday as the U.S. and China began charging additional port fees on each other's vessels, in the latest exchange in a protracted trade war ahead of a planned meeting of the two countries' leaders.

Afghan, Pakistani negotiators in Doha for peace talks after fierce clashes

Afghanistan and Pakistan will hold peace talks in Doha on Saturday, both sides said, after the South Asia neighbours extended a ceasefire following a week of fierce border clashes. Pakistan and Afghanistan on Friday extended the 48-hour truce for the duration of the Doha talks, sources said, as they seek to resolve the clashes that killed dozens and wounded hundreds in the worst violence between the two countries since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.

Trump says Venezuelan President Maduro 'doesn't want to fuck around' with US

President Donald Trump said on Friday that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro does not want to "fuck around" with the United States, amid escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas. Trump's comments followed a Reuters report, citing three sources, that the U.S. military was holding two survivors on a Navy ship after a U.S. strike on their suspected Caribbean drug vessel killed two others.

Blast at explosives plant in Russia's Bashkortostan kills three people, governor says

Three people were killed and five injured in a blast at the Avangard explosives plant in the city of Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan region, regional governor Radiy Khabirov said on Saturday via his Telegram channel. The explosion at the plant occurred on Friday evening.

Hand and foot fossils found in Kenya for ancient human relative

Researchers have unearthed near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya fossils of hand and foot bones belonging to an extinct human relative dating to 1.52 million years ago, revealing that this species would have been able to grasp and manipulate objects such as stone tools and was fully bipedal. The fossils represented the first hand and foot bones unambiguously attributed to the species Paranthropus boisei. The researchers discovered a partial skeleton that included most of the hand, three foot bones, most of the teeth, a partial forearm bone and skull fragments.

Pakistan, Afghanistan extend ceasefire as Doha talks set to begin, sources say

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed on Friday to extend their 48-hour ceasefire until the conclusion of talks in Doha, according to three Pakistani security officials and one Afghan Taliban source. A Pakistani delegation had already arrived in Doha while an Afghan delegation was expected to reach the Qatari capital on Saturday, said the sources, who did not want to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Exclusive-US Navy warship holding survivors from strike on Caribbean vessel, sources say

The U.S. military is holding two survivors aboard a Navy ship after rescuing them from a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean hit by a U.S. strike that killed two others, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. The disclosure, which has not been previously reported, raises the possibility that the survivors from Thursday's strike are the first prisoners of war in a conflict declared by President Donald Trump against a "narcoterrorist" threat he says is emanating from Venezuela.

Britain's Prince Andrew gives up title of Duke of York

Britain's Prince Andrew said on Friday he would give up using his title of Duke of York following years of criticism about his behaviour and connections to the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The reputation of Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles and second son of the late Queen Elizabeth, has taken a battering in recent years, most notably because of his links to Epstein.

Nobel laureate Chen Ning Yang dies at 103, Xinhua says

Chen Ning Yang, one of the world's most renowned physicists and a Nobel Prize winner, died at 103 of illness in Beijing on October 18, state news outlet Xinhua said on Saturday. Born in Hefei in Anhui province in eastern China in 1922, Yang shared a Nobel Prize for physics with Tsung-Dao Lee in 1957. He was also a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at the prestigious Tsinghua University.

Bessent, Chinese vice premier to meet to try to defuse US tariff hike

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday he expects to meet next week with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Malaysia to try to forestall an escalation of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that President Donald Trump said was unsustainable. Bessent made the announcement during a White House cabinet meeting and later confirmed plans for a meeting after a call with He on Friday evening. Bessent said on X the two officials "engaged in frank and detailed discussions regarding trade between the United States and China."

Prince Andrew: the British royal brought down by scandal

Once widely reputed to be Queen Elizabeth's favourite son and feted as a dashing young military officer, Britain's Prince Andrew will now always be seen in the public eye as the royal who was accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl. Andrew, 65, said on Friday he would give up his title of Duke of York after years of criticism about his connections to the late, disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In talks with Zelenskiy, Trump appears to press pause on fresh support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy came to the White House on Friday looking for weapons to keep fighting his country's war with Russia, but met an American president who appears more intent on brokering a peace deal than upgrading Ukraine's arsenal. While U.S. President Donald Trump did not rule out providing the long-range Tomahawk missiles Zelenskiy seeks, Trump appeared cool to the prospect as he looked ahead to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary in the coming weeks.

Analysis-Ceasefire offers Israel opportunity to end its international isolation

A ceasefire in Gaza is raising hopes among many in Israel that the country can begin to repair its image abroad, after months of deepening isolation due to the toll of the two-year conflict. Public opinion in the West has shifted significantly since the war erupted following Islamist group Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

UKMTO says vessel hit by unknown projectile east of Yemen's Aden

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said on Saturday it received a report of an incident 116 nautical miles (214 km) east of the Yemeni port of Aden, in which a vessel was hit by an unknown projectile, causing a fire.

Authorities were investigating, UKMTO added.

Cameroon-flagged tanker issued distress call off Yemen's Ahwar, security firm says

A Cameroon-flagged tanker issued a distress call on Saturday after an explosion onboard as it passed about 60 nautical miles south of Yemen's Ahwar, British maritime security firm Ambrey said. The cause of the explosion was unclear.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)