DREW ANGERER, GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / POOL/ AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to a proposal by US President Donald Trump that Russia and Ukraine cease attacking each other's energy infrastructure for 30 days, the Kremlin said following a lengthy phone discussion between the leaders.
The two countries plan to begin negotiations "immediately" in the Middle East on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, according to a readout from the White House.
"The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace," the White House readout said.
Trump had been pressuring Putin to agree to a US-backed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has already accepted as part of a move toward a permanent peace deal to end Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two.
The war has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and reduced entire towns to rubble.
Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, said last week he supported in principle Washington's proposal for a truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.
Typhoon Dolphin lashed Japan's southern Okinawa prefecture on Saturday, injuring five people and cutting power to 14,000 buildings, while China shut ports and ferry routes ahead of the storm's expected arrival on its east coast.
Spain's government said on Friday it would establish border controls for flights and ships from Italy from midnight on Saturday until September 7 in a dispute with the neighbouring country over irregular migration.
A Thai teenager killed at least five people and himself at a school outside Bangkok on Friday after fatally shooting his grandparents, police said, in the Southeast Asian nation's worst mass killing since 2022.
A US federal appeals court ordered President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday to stop construction on a $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing, dealing the Republican leader a major setback in a case testing his presidential authority.