Reuters World News Summary

Kyiv's stance has become increasingly uncompromising in recent weeks as Russia experienced military setbacks while Ukrainian officials grew worried they might be pressured to sacrifice land for a peace deal. North Korea's fever cases under 200,000 for 2nd day amid silence on aid offer North Korea's daily fever cases stayed below 200,000 for a second day in a row, state media said on Monday, as Pyongyang remained silent on South Korean and U.S. offers to help fight its first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Australia swears in new Labor PM ahead of Quad meeting

Australia's Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese was sworn in as the country's 31st prime minister on Monday, promising a "journey of change" as he vowed to tackle climate change, rising living costs and inequality. Labor returns to power after nine years in opposition as a wave of unprecedented support for the Greens and climate-focussed independents, mostly women, helped end nearly a decade of rule by the conservative coalition in Saturday's general election.

Ukraine parliament bans Russian war symbols

Ukraine's parliament on Sunday banned the symbols "Z" and "V", used by Russia's military to promote its war in Ukraine but agreed to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's call to allow their use for educational or historic purposes. Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an opposition member, announced the decision on the Telegram messaging app, saying 313 deputies had voted in favour in the 423-member Verkhovna Rada assembly.

Ukraine rejects concessions as Russians attack in east and south

Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or any territorial concessions to Moscow as Russia stepped up its attack in the eastern and southern parts of the country, pounding the Donbas and Mykolaiv regions with air strikes and artillery fire. Kyiv's stance has become increasingly uncompromising in recent weeks as Russia experienced military setbacks while Ukrainian officials grew worried they might be pressured to sacrifice land for a peace deal.

North Korea's fever cases under 200,000 for 2nd day amid silence on aid offer

North Korea's daily fever cases stayed below 200,000 for a second day in a row, state media said on Monday, as Pyongyang remained silent on South Korean and U.S. offers to help fight its first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. The COVID wave, declared on May 12, has fuelled concerns over a lack of vaccines, inadequate medical infrastructure and a potential food crisis in the country of 25 million.

Revolutionary Guards say colonel assassinated in Tehran

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that one of its officers, Colonel Sayad Khodai, was killed in a rare assassination in Tehran. Khodai was "one of the defenders of the shrines", the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, referring to military personnel or advisers who Iran says fight on its behalf to protect Shi'ite sites in Iraq or Syria against groups such as Islamic State.

Severed head of missing Nigerian lawmaker found in park -police

Police in Nigeria have discovered the severed head of a state legislator who went missing last week in the southeastern state of Anambra, where the government accuses separatists of carrying out a spate of killings and kidnappings, police said on Sunday. The southeast, homeland of the Igbo ethnic group, is agitating to secede from the rest of Nigeria and the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group has been leading those calls.

Storms kill at least 8 in Canada, leave half a million without power

The death toll from powerful thunderstorms in Canada's two most populous provinces this weekend rose to at least eight, authorities said on Sunday, as emergency crews continued a massive clean-up to restore power to half a million people. The storms, which lasted more than two hours Saturday afternoon and packed the power of a tornado, left a trail of destruction in parts of Ontario and Quebec. Wind gusts as strong as 132 km (82 miles) per hour felled trees, uprooted electric poles and toppled many metal transmission towers, utility companies said.

Biden says 'hello' to N.Korea's Kim amid tensions over weapons tests

U.S. President Joe Biden, in Seoul before heading to Japan as part of his first Asia trip as president, had a simple message for North Korea's Kim Jong Un: "Hello... period," he told reporters on the last day of his visit to South Korea on Sunday. Biden said he was "not concerned" about new North Korean nuclear tests, which would be the first in nearly five years.

Israeli govt and court at odds over Jewish prayer at flashpoint shrine

Israel reaffirmed on Sunday a long-standing arrangement with Muslim authorities that prevents Jewish prayer at a contested Jerusalem holy site, pushing back against a lower Israeli court that questioned the legality of police action against violators. Al Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews revere as a vestige of their two ancient temples, is a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Under the decades-old "status quo", Israel allows Jews to visit only if they refrain from religious rites.

Fate of ancient Athens guides WHO at gathering to plan for next pandemic

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), will have history on his mind when he hosts almost 200 member states at the U.N agency's annual assembly this week. In a recent white paper laying out his plans for the future of global health security, Tedros began by quoting ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who wanted the world to learn from the mistakes of a devastating plague in Athens in 430 BC.

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