Reuters World News Summary

Prosecutors say Trump covered up a $130,000 hush money payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election. Russia, Ukraine trade allegations of chemical weapons use at global watchdog Russia and Ukraine have accused each other at the global chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague of using banned toxins on the battlefield, the organisation said on Tuesday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Israeli forces seize Gaza's Rafah border crossing, Hamas says move harms truce talks

Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday and tanks pushed into the southern Gazan city of Rafah as international mediators struggled to find agreement on a ceasefire between Israel and its Hamas foe. Hamas accused Israel of trying to undermine the truce talks taking place in Cairo by mounting the offensive.

Exclusive-Ukraine examines N.Korean missile debris amid fears of Moscow-Pyongyang axis

Ukrainian state prosecutors say they have examined debris from 21 of around 50 North Korean ballistic missiles launched by Russia between late December and late February, as they seek to assess the threat from Moscow's cooperation with Pyongyang. In previously unreported details of an investigation under way into the missiles, the office of Ukraine's top prosecutor, Andriy Kostin, also told Reuters that the failure rate of the North Korean weaponry appeared to be high.

Putin starts new six-year term with challenge to the West

Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was up the West to choose between confrontation and cooperation as he was sworn in for a new six-year term on Tuesday at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and many of its allies. More than two years into the war in Ukraine, Putin said he wanted to "bow" before Russia's soldiers there and declared in his inauguration speech that his landslide re-election in March was proof the country was united and on the right track.

Fire and hide: Ukraine's artillery pinned down by Russian drones

Rumbling out of its forest hideout, the hulking German-supplied howitzer has only a few minutes to fire before slipping back under cover to evade Russian surveillance in the skies above. Across the hills and valleys of the east, Ukrainian artillery units play a cat-and-mouse game with Russian drones hunting high-value artillery weapons such as this self-propelled Panzerhaubitze 2000.

Porn star Stormy Daniels to testify in Trump hush money trial, ABC News says

Stormy Daniels will be called as a witness in Donald Trump's criminal trial on Tuesday, ABC News reported, setting up a long-awaited showdown between the former U.S. president and the porn star who says they had sex. Daniels is at the center of the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Prosecutors say Trump covered up a $130,000 hush money payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Russia, Ukraine trade allegations of chemical weapons use at global watchdog

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other at the global chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague of using banned toxins on the battlefield, the organisation said on Tuesday. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that the accusations were "insufficiently substantiated" but added: "The situation remains volatile and extremely concerning regarding the possible re-emergence of use of toxic chemicals as weapons."

Biden to condemn antisemitism, praise free speech at Holocaust remembrance

When U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to honor 6 million Jews killed eight decades ago, his message will be as much about the present as the past. Biden will speak to the existential threats faced by Jewish people seven months to the day since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 by Israeli tallies, in what Biden has called the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Russia detains two US nationals, including a serving soldier

Russian authorities said on Tuesday they had detained two U.S. nationals, including a serving U.S. soldier, in separate criminal cases. The soldier, detained on Monday on charges of criminal misconduct, was arrested on theft charges by a court in Vladivostok in Russia's Far East, the regional office of the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Macron seeks to charm China's Xi Jinping into trade concessions in Pyrenees jaunt

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Pyrenees mountains on Tuesday on the second day of a trip during which Xi showed little sign of being ready to offer major concessions on trade or foreign policy. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, who greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees airport in windy, cold weather, took them to have lunch in the mountains dear to Macron as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother.

Kevin Spacey overturns UK ruling in sex assault case over lawyers' mistake

Oscar-winning U.S. actor Kevin Spacey on Tuesday overturned a London court ruling which effectively found him liable for an alleged sexual assault on a British man, after his lawyers mistakenly failed to serve a defence to a civil lawsuit.

Spacey is being sued at London's High Court by a man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, who alleges that in 2008 he was sexually assaulted by the Hollywood star. The actor has denied the allegations.

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