Reuters World News Summary

Ukraine had aimed to hold a summit of world leaders this year as it tries to build a global coalition of support to endorse a 10-point "formula" for peace drafted by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. US says Israel agrees to daily pauses in Gaza attacks but fighting rages on The White House said on Thursday that Israel agreed to pause military operations in parts of north Gaza for four hours a day, but there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting that has killed thousands and laid waste to the seaside enclave.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Republicans demand Biden challenge China's Xi on fentanyl, prisoners

Republicans in the U.S. Congress urged President Joe Biden to make demands of China's leader Xi Jinping over detained Americans and other issues when they meet next week in San Francisco, arguing that Washington's push to engage Beijing had "negligible benefit." The Biden-Xi meeting around events at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will follow a series of largely unreciprocated U.S. cabinet-level visits to China, as the U.S. seeks to recover from a diplomatic crisis over its downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States in February.

Ukraine says global 'peace summit' may take place next year

A global "peace summit" for Ukraine may now take place in February 2024, a top Kyiv official said on Thursday amid concerns in the West that the war in Gaza is making it harder to win over diplomatic support for Kyiv's blueprint for peace. Ukraine had aimed to hold a summit of world leaders this year as it tries to build a global coalition of support to endorse a 10-point "formula" for peace drafted by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

US says Israel agrees to daily pauses in Gaza attacks but fighting rages on

The White House said on Thursday that Israel agreed to pause military operations in parts of north Gaza for four hours a day, but there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting that has killed thousands and laid waste to the seaside enclave. The pauses, which would allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors and could be used for the release of hostages, were significant first steps, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

Treasury's Adeyemo says 'far better' to see Russia buying tankers than tanks

U.S. Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo on Thursday said the Group of Seven-led coalition that imposed a price cap on Russian oil last December was shifting its focus from reducing Russian revenues to raising Moscow's cost of shipping its oil. Adeyemo told the Reuters NEXT conference in New York that Russia's investment in a shadow fleet of tankers to carry its oil and the accompanying insurance was cutting into Moscow's profits and reducing its ability to fund its war in Ukraine.

Spain's Sanchez set for new term as amnesty deal reached with Catalan separatists

Spanish acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez looked set to clinch another term in office after his Socialist Party (PSOE) on Thursday secured the backing of Catalan separatist party Junts to form a government in a deal the country's opposition condemned as "a humiliation". A law granting amnesty to those prosecuted over Catalonia's attempt to secede from Spain was included in the deal, the text showed.

Palestinians leaving besieged Gaza City fear new Nakba

Palestinians trudging past Israeli tanks and decomposing corpses along a frontline passage out of encircled Gaza City on Thursday said they feared a new "Nakba", the "catastrophe" of their mass dispossession after Israel was founded in 1948. Thousands of people were moving south along Salah al-Din road out of Gaza City on Thursday, the only exit route for civilians escaping an intensifying siege as Israeli tanks rolled deeper into the Gaza Strip enclave.

Former US astronaut Frank Borman dies at 95

Former U.S. astronaut Frank Borman, who made history by commanding the first manned flight to circle the moon and later piloted Eastern Airlines as chairman in severe economic turbulence, has died at the age of 95, NASA said on Thursday. Borman, who spent a total of almost 20 days in space on two trips in the 1960s, died on Tuesday in Billings, Montana, NASA said in a statement on its website.

Portugal president calls March snap election, leaves time to pass budget

Portugal will hold a snap parliamentary election on March 10, its second in as many years, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said on Thursday, following Tuesday's abrupt resignation of the Socialist prime minister amid a corruption investigation. Yet, the president said he would only disband parliament, where the Socialist Party (PS) has a majority of seats, after the final vote on the 2024 budget bill, due on Nov. 29. The house approved the bill on first reading on Oct. 31.

Eighteen Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in growing West Bank violence

Israeli forces raided the Palestinian city of Jenin on Thursday and fought an hours-long battle with gunmen in which 14 people were killed, one of the heaviest clashes in the occupied West Bank in months. Four more Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers in separate incidents across the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, an increase in violence against the backdrop of Israel's war against Hamas in the nearby Gaza Strip.

Drone, explosive attacks target US forces across Iraq

U.S. forces were targeted in three attacks in Iraq on Thursday but suffered no casualties, a U.S. military official and security sources said, in the most widespread single day of strikes on U.S. assets since the Israel-Hamas conflict started. There had been four attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria in the past 24 hours, a separate U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.