Reuters World News Summary

Demonstrations demanding an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers began Jan. 28 in the Canadian capital Ottawa and have spilled to Canada-U.S. border crossings at Windsor, Ontario and Coutts, Alberta. France's Macron calls for calm to resolve Ukraine crisis French President Emmanuel Macron, the first leader of a major Western power to meet Vladimir Putin since Russia massed troops near Ukraine, said on Tuesday he believed steps can be taken to de-escalate the crisis and called on all sides to stay calm.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Analysis-Kremlin watchers detect signs Putin wants to defuse Ukraine crisis

Behind his latest outbursts against NATO and doomsday warnings to the West, there are tentative signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to avoid an escalation of the Ukraine crisis and seek some form of accommodation with the West. In the early hours of Tuesday, Putin warned for the second time in a week that European countries would automatically be drawn into a war with Russia in which "there will be no winners" if Ukraine joined NATO and then tried to recapture the Crimean peninsula that Russia seized from it in 2014.

Rocket warning sirens sound in northern Israel, military says

Rocket warning sirens sounded in northern Israel on Wednesday, the Israeli military said. On Twitter, the military said it was checking whether any attack had taken place.

Italy makes protecting environment part of Constitution

The Italian parliament approved a law on Tuesday making protection of the environment part of the Constitution in a vote politicians and activists hailed as significant for the country's future. The law says the state must safeguard the environment, biodiversity and the ecosystem "in the interest too of future generations". It said any private economic initiative must not damage health or the environment.

At least 30 Islamist militants killed in Mali joint operations, France says

At least 30 Islamist militants were killed and dozens of vehicles and weapons destroyed during joint operations between the French-led Takuba task force and Malian soldiers last week, the French Army Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. During the main operation on Feb. 3, a column of fighters on motorbikes was spotted by a drone, the statement said.

War-weary Ukrainian soldiers in trenches ready to 'make it or break it'

A group of Ukrainian soldiers patrols the frontline in eastern Ukraine when they suddenly hear the noise of grenades going off in the distance. They crouch down and start running towards the safety of the trenches. This is the contact line of Ukraine's eight-year war against Russian-backed forces that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says has claimed 15,000 lives.

U.S. lawmakers closer to agreement on Russia sanctions bill -Schumer

U.S. lawmakers negotiating a Russia sanctions bill were getting "closer and closer" to an agreement, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday. Russia has amassed troops and equipment along its border with Ukraine, stoking fears of an invasion. Washington has threatened Moscow with sanctions should it attack Ukraine.

'War in the middle of Europe': German foreign minister visits frontline in eastern Ukraine

Visibly shaken, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stood in front of the ruins of a house near the frontline of the conflict in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. "It leaves me with a very heavy feeling that here, right by the beach, which should be one of the prettiest places to be in the country, you can actually feel what happened here years ago," she said at a former resort near the port of Mariupol.

Global COVID response program 'running on fumes' amid budget shortfall

A global initiative to get COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines to poorer nations has only received 5% of the donations sought to deliver on its aims this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other aid groups. The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator budgeted $23.4 billion for its efforts from October 2021 to September 2022, of which it hoped $16.8 billion would come in the form of grants from richer countries.

Pandemic border protests strand cattle and car parts, snarling Canada-U.S. trade

Protests in Canada against vaccine mandates have disrupted two key U.S. border crossings, and are snarling hundreds of millions of dollars daily of trade, ranging from cattle to car parts. Demonstrations demanding an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers began Jan. 28 in the Canadian capital Ottawa and have spilled to Canada-U.S. border crossings at Windsor, Ontario and Coutts, Alberta.

France's Macron calls for calm to resolve Ukraine crisis

French President Emmanuel Macron, the first leader of a major Western power to meet Vladimir Putin since Russia massed troops near Ukraine, said on Tuesday he believed steps can be taken to de-escalate the crisis and called on all sides to stay calm. Macron, who in contrast to the U.S. and British leaders, has played down the likelihood that Russia may soon invade its neighbour, shuttled from Moscow to Kyiv on Tuesday in a high-profile bid to act as a mediator.