China removed a three-decade-old tax exemption on contraceptive drugs and devices from 1 January in new steps to spur a flagging birth rate.

US President Donald Trump blamed aspirin for large bruises on his hand and denied falling asleep while attending public meetings in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published.

Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities, with six reported killed, the first deaths since the cost-of-living demonstrations broke out.

Investigators raced to identify the victims of a fire that ripped through a bar in the Swiss Alps town of Crans-Montana, turning a New Year’s celebration into one of the country’s worst tragedies.

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian child in northern Gaza as hundreds of thousands of families across the enclave continue to reel from Israel’s continued restrictions on shelter supplies and other humanitarian aid.

Israel plans to ban 37 aid organisations from operating in Gaza from Thursday unless they hand over detailed information on their Palestinian staff, despite mounting criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

Details remain sparse on the effectiveness of the United States’ airstrikes on Islamist militants in Nigeria last week. However, the event signals a shift in US-Nigeria cooperation on fighting terror.

Mali and Burkina Faso have announced their plan to apply reciprocal visa bans to citizens of the United States, weeks after US President Donald Trump included the West African countries in an expanded travel ban list.

A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, a state-owned research centre said, as Russian forces make advances on the battlefield and efforts intensify to reach a ceasefire deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

Eurostar said it plans to run a full service, but warned of possible knock-on disruptions after a power supply issue halted Channel Tunnel train trips connecting London to the European mainland.

Thailand released 18 Cambodian soldiers captured in July, both governments said, after a fresh ceasefire between the neighbours held for more than three days following weeks of deadly border clashes.

A video of a protester sitting in the street and facing down police on motorbikes during demonstrations that erupted in Tehran in recent days has gone viral on social media, with some observers calling it Iran’s “Tiananmen moment”.

The Trump administration in recent months has latched onto news of a large-scale public benefit fraud scandal to carry out immigration raids and harsher policies targeting Minnesota’s large Somali migrant community.

Saudi Arabia called on the UAE to withdraw its forces from Yemen and cease providing support to any groups in the country within 24 hours, backing a similar call from the Yemeni government in Aden.