International from Tuesday, May 5th, 2026

Two people were killed and three others were seriously injured on Monday when a car drove into a central pedestrian zone of the eastern German city of Leipzig, Mayor Burkhard Jung said, the latest in a spate of such incidents in recent years in Germany.

President Vladimir Putin has declared on Monday a two-day ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine on May 8-9 to mark Russia’s World War Two victory, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy countered with his own proposed pause in fighting starting earlier, on the night of May 5‑6.

A midmorning Russian missile attack on the town of Merefa, in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, killed seven people and wounded more than 30, including a 2-year-old boy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

A small airplane with five occupants crashed into a building on Monday in the city of Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil, killing three people, local officials and firefighters said.

A blast at a fireworks factory in China's Hunan province has killed 21 people and injured 61, prompting President Xi Jinping to call for a thorough investigation, state media reported on Tuesday.

The US military said on Monday it destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones as Tehran sought to thwart a new US naval effort to open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.