Fury was palpable at the end of a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as protesters demanded a deal to free Israeli hostages in Gaza and grieved this week’s news that the bodies of six captives had been retrieved.

There has been no official explanation yet of how the six died.

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that initial forensic tests suggest that all six hostages had been shot, but it has not determined whether the gunshot wounds were the cause of death. IDF also underlined that the findings are preliminary.

The IDF said four additional bodies were found next to the bodies of the six hostages, which were believed to be those of the Hamas militants who had been holding the hostages, but that no evidence of shooting was found on their bodies.

The IDF did not name any alleged shooter.

But standing outside Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Daniel said the IDF’s announcement that all six hostages had been shot underlines the potential danger in rescue operations that depend on force.

Israeli outlet Ynet had reported on Tuesday that an IDF preliminary assessment was that the hostages may have died due to suffocation after the IDF hit a nearby Hamas target and carbon dioxide flooded the tunnel where they were being held.

Asked in a news conference on Tuesday whether the IDF had killed the hostages, spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not clarify whether the hostages had been killed as a result of Israeli military action. Instead, Hagari referred back to a statement he made in June, when he had said the “the hostages were killed while our forces were operating in Khan Younis.”

The deaths have renewed urgency for a ceasefire among the protesters in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Omer, 46, who was at the protest with his two daughters, said that he believed the six hostages “could have been saved a lot earlier.” He accused the Israeli government of repeatedly stalling on inking a deal with Hamas, which he warned would only led to Israel paying a higher price for an agreement that could have been secured earlier.

A ceasefire would also bring relief to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the besieged enclave as Israel forges ahead with its military operation. The United Nations estimated in July that up to 1.9 million people in the strip have been displaced, almost the entire population of Gaza.

But there is skepticism about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to strike a deal given fierce opposition from far-right ministers in his coalition. The Israeli prime minister’s political future largely depends on his far right coalition partners – several of whom have already threatened to leave the government and cause its collapse if he agrees to the deal.

“Maybe Hamas kidnapped them (the hostages), but the one we can accuse of murdering them is Benjamin Netanyahu,” Omer said, adding that the prime minister is “the only one responsible.”

A group representing the families of Israeli hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said in a Thursday statement that the forensic tests that found gunshot wounds amounted to “further proof of the cruelty of the terrorists” who held them in captivity.

The Forum also reiterated criticism of Israeli authorities, saying that the recovery of bodies “is no achievement.”

“It is a testimony of the complete failure to reach a deal in time, as six hostages who were supposed to return alive have returned in coffins,” the Forum said.

The recovered bodies were identified by Israeli officials on Tuesday as belonging to Yoram Metzger, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Chaim Peri, Nadav Popplewell and Yagev Buchshtab. All but Munder had been announced dead in recent months by the Israeli military.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF and ISA had entered Hamas tunnels in a “complex operation” to retrieve their bodies.

Munder was taken along with his wife, daughter and grandson, who were later freed during a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas in November. Munder’s son, Roee, was killed during the attack.

Nine-year-old Ohad Munder told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan 11 on Tuesday that the death of his grandfather and the other hostages “shouldn’t have happened.”

“There have already been many times when there were negotiations for (a) deal… and then they say no – and in the end they don’t want it, and always regret it at the last minute. All the hostages could have returned alive even on the first day. They could have brought back grandfather and all the other hostages,” Ohad said.

There are currently 109 Israeli hostages that remain in Gaza, including 36 believed to be dead, according to data from the Israeli Government Press Office.

A Greek-flagged oil tanker carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil poses an “environmental hazard” after it came under attack from projectiles and arms fire in the Red Sea.

The 25-person crew of the Sounion oil tanker was rescued after the attack by a vessel from Eunavfor Aspides, a European Union defensive maritime security operation aimed at protecting merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf.

The vessel, damaged and without engine power, is now anchored between Yemen and Eritrea, a maritime security source told Reuters on Thursday. Delta Tankers said it is working on a plan to move the tanker to a safer destination for further checks and repairs.

The vessel was approached at around 3 a.m. local time Wednesday morning by “two small craft” with around 13 to 15 people on board, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported. There was a “brief exchange of small arms fire” before the vessel was struck by at least three projectiles, the report added.

All Sounion crew members are in good health, Greece’s shipping ministry said in a statement, but the boat has suffered “material damage.”

The 150,000 tons of crude oil on board the ship now pose a navigational and environmental hazard in the region, Eunavfor Aspides said in a statement. “It is essential that everyone in the area exercises caution and refrains from any actions that could lead to a deterioration of the current situation,” the naval force added.

Eunavfor Aspides said all those on board the boat were transported to Djibouti, in east Africa, which was the nearest safe port of call. Before it reached the Sounion, the EU’s navy crew “destroyed” an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) that it said “posed an imminent threat to the ship and the crew.” The naval force did not say who was behind the attack.

Greece’s shipping ministry called the attack on the oil tanker a “flagrant violation of international law and a serious threat to the safety of international navigation.”

Attacks on container vessels in the Red Sea have been wreaking havoc on one of the world’s most important trade routes for months. Iran-backed Houthi militants stepped up their attacks on ships in late November last year, in retaliation for Israel’s war against Hamas.

Russia’s main internal security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), said in a statement that it had “initiated and is investigating criminal cases” against Paton Walsh and two Ukrainian journalists.

It accused them of having “illegally crossed the State Border of the Russian Federation and filmed in the area of​​the Sudzha settlement in the Kursk Region.”

“Our team was invited by the Ukrainian government, along with other international journalists, and escorted by the Ukrainian military to view territory it had recently occupied. This is protected activity in accordance with the rights afforded to journalists under the Geneva Convention and international law.”

The FSB said that the journalists would be placed on an “international wanted list.” It is not clear to which list the FSB referred.

A fifth body has been brought to shore from the wreck of the “Bayesian” superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily early in the week, as the chief executive of the vessel’s manufacturer insisted it was fundamentally safe.

As investigators probe the cause of the wreck, the CEO of the firm that owns the vessel’s manufacturer said the Bayesian was “unsinkable.”

“Sailing ships, it is well known, are the safest in the most absolute sense,” Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News in an interview. “First of all, because they have very little surface compared to a yacht facing into the wind. Second, with the structure of the drift keel, they become unsinkable bodies.”

Constantino said he was in a state of “sadness and disbelief” since learning that the Bayesian – built in 2008 by the Italian company Perini Navi, which was acquired by The Italian Sea Group in 2021 – sank early Monday.

The British-flagged vessel, carrying 22 people on board, rapidly sank after its mast, one of the world’s tallest, broke in half during a violent storm. Fifteen people were rescued on Monday and one body was recovered – thought to be that of the onboard chef Ricardo Thomas. Six others were initially reported missing.

The six individuals reported missing are British tech titan Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch; Morgan Stanley International director Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy Bloomer; prominent American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Italian authorities are not yet disclosing the names of those whose bodies have been brought ashore. This is likely because in Italy, a person close to the deceased must formally identify the body, before a coroner or the prosecutor’s office confirms this.

Given that the sinking of the Bayesian is under criminal investigation, formal identifications will likely come from the prosecutor’s office. Italy’s civil protection agencies do not have the authority to confirm victims’ identities.

Since the boat sank, emergency crews have battled difficult conditions to enter the wreck, which is around 50 meters underwater (approximately 150 feet.) Divers have had around only 12 minutes to reach and explore the site before having to resurface.

Initial reports suggest a small waterspout, which developed over the area the boat was in Siciliy on Monday morning, could have been behind the yacht’s sinking.

Four days in, Italian authorities are still trying to understand how the 56-meter (184-foot) yacht sank so quickly. Separately, the United Kingdom’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has also opened an investigation, saying on Wednesday that it would deploy a team of four inspectors to Palermo to conduct a preliminary assessment of the scene.

CCTV shows footage of sinking

Waterspouts, a type of tornado, are spinning columns of air that form over water, or move from land out to water. They are often accompanied by high winds, high seas, hail and dangerous lightning. While they are most common over tropical oceans, they can form almost anywhere. Waterspouts in Sicily, however are rare.

Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, stressed that there was no indication that the design or construction of the boat was at fault in the ship’s sinking. “This episode sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact,” he said.

Unverified security camera footage released on Wednesday appears to have shown the moments that the tornado sank the yacht. As rain pelted down on the port, a grainy video shows the boat being battered by the storm, rocking violently from side to side before capsizing.

One witness, the owner of a villa looking out to where the Bayesian was anchored, said that after news of the sinking yacht emerged, he watched back his CCTV footage, where the boat could be seen sinking.

“In just 60 seconds, you can see the ship disappear,” he told Italian outlet ANSA. “You can see clearly what’s happening. There was nothing that could be done for the vessel. It disappeared in a very short time.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Rescuers are scrambling to evacuate flooded communities after heavy rains inundated parts of Bangladesh and northeast India, causing rivers on both sides of the border to reach extreme levels.

In India, at least eight people were killed by landslides and drowning, while tens of thousands have sought shelter in relief camps, according to disaster management authorities.

Heavy flooding and mudslides have killed hundreds, displaced millions and wrecked infrastructure across South Asia in recent months. While floods are common in the region during monsoon season, scientists say the human-caused climate crisis has exacerbated extreme weather events and made them more deadly.

Parts of India’s northeast border state of Tripura and districts in eastern Bangladesh have recorded heavy rainfall of up to nearly 200 millimeters (about 8 inches) in recent days, which has caused perilous floodwaters to rise.

As of Thursday, Bangladesh’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said 11 rivers in the region recorded water levels above the “danger level.”

In the hard-hit Feni district of Chattogram, a city in southeast Bangladesh, efforts are underway to rescue people from waterlogged homes and to shelter the displaced.

Army and navy personnel are evacuating people by boat with the help of volunteers, said Musammat Shahina Akter, a senior official in Feni.

Government buildings and high schools have been converted into shelters, and more than 25,000 people are sheltering in relief camps, Akter said.

“We don’t expect people to be able to return home anytime soon,” he said, adding the rain is easing but water levels can only recede after the rainfall stops.

Kazi Piash, a 24-year-old Feni resident, said he took shelter on his rooftop after the floods came up to his neck.

“We’ve constructed a makeshift tent on the roof with tarpaulin but there’s about 40 of us on the roofs of two one-story homes,” Piash said, adding the group included his pregnant sister-in-law.

“We have been on the roof for hours, my body is shivering, our phones also won’t have a battery for long, so we need to get help quick,” he said.

Videos showed residents paddling in canoes and swimming with their belongings through muddied streams, as floodwaters lapped at the roofs of homes.

Meanwhile, India denied claims circulating on social media that the flooding was due to the forced opening of a dam on the Gomati River, which flows through Tripura and enters Bangladesh through the district of Comilla.

According to Tripura’s Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath, the dam was designed so that excess water escapes automatically after the water level reaches a certain point.

“No gate has been opened for the Gomati Hydro Electric Project,” Nath posted on X on Wednesday, adding the storage capacity of the reservoir is up to 94 meters (308 feet).

More wet weather is expected across Tripura and eastern Bangladesh, with forecasts of 50 mm to 150 mm (2 to 6 inches) of rain over the next three days.

Indonesia’s parliament postponed ratifying changes to an elections law on Thursday as protesters attempted to tear down the gates of parliament in the capital, following outcry over legislation seen to strengthen the political influence of outgoing President Joko Widodo.

The plenary session to pass the changes was delayed due to a lack of a quorum, legislator Habiburokhman told reporters outside the parliament building.

It is unclear if parliament will reconvene to pass the law before the registration for regional elections opens next Tuesday.

The parliament planned to ratify changes that would have reversed a ruling by the constitutional court earlier this week. The legislative changes would have blocked a vocal government critic in the race for the influential post of Jakarta governor, and also paved the way for Widodo’s youngest son to run in elections in Java this November.

The power struggle between the parliament and the judiciary comes amid a week of dramatic political developments in the world’s third-largest democracy, and in the final stretch of the president’s second term.

Widodo downplayed the concerns, saying on Wednesday the court ruling and parliamentary deliberations were part of standard “checks and balances.”

The home affairs minister said the changes were intended to provide legal certainty.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the parliament building in Jakarta, some breaching part of a fence, but few daring to cross it. Others draped banners accusing Jokowi of destroying democracy, and carried colorful banners and props, including a mock guillotine featuring the president’s face.

Indonesian presidential spokesperson Hasan Nasbi called for calm, and urged protestors to avoid violence, as some scenes showed demonstrators also throwing rocks at parliament in Bandung.

Protests were held in multiple cities across the country, with tear gas fired at demonstrators in Semarang, TV footage showed.

“This is the peak of my disdain,” said Afif Sidik, a 29-year-old teacher who joined the protest outside parliament.

“This is a republic. It’s a democracy, but if its leadership is decided by one person, or an oligarch, we can’t accept that.”

Legal experts and political analysts have described the power struggle as bordering on a constitutional crisis.

Elections analyst Titi Anggraini characterized the maneuver as “constitutional insubordination.”

The street protests follow a wave of criticism online, with blue posters featuring the words “Emergency Warning” above Indonesia’s national eagle proliferating on social media.

The rupiah IDR= and Jakarta’s main stock index .JKSE slumped by midday Thursday, hit by concerns of protests as well as the country’s widening current account deficit.

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday revoked a minimum threshold requirement to nominate candidates in regional elections and kept the minimum age limit of 30 years for candidates.

That ruling effectively blocks the candidacy of the president’s 29-year-old son from contesting the race for deputy governor in Central Java, and would allow Anies Baswedan, the current favorite, to run in Jakarta.

But within 24 hours the parliament had tabled an emergency revision to annul the changes.

All parties except one agreed to the revision.

“Indonesian democracy is once again at a crucial crossroads,” Anies posted on social media platform X, urging legislators to remember its fate rested in their hands.

The parliament is dominated by a big-tent coalition aligned to the outgoing president, popularly known as Jokowi, and president-elect Prabowo Subianto.

Prabowo, who won a landslide victory in February’s elections, will be inaugurated on Oct. 20, with Jokowi’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his vice president.

Jokowi is facing mounting criticism for the increasingly bold ways his government is consolidating power, and his nascent political dynasty.

“The ruling of the constitutional court is final and binding,” said Bivitri Susanti, from the Jentera School of Law,

“It is not possible for the legislative body to violate the judiciary’s ruling. This is a power struggle.”

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Polish leaders Thursday in a rare trip a day ahead of his expected visit to Ukraine – a first in the countries’ history.

Modi’s tour comes weeks after he traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a symbolic first bilateral visit of the Indian prime minister’s new term – a trip that drew criticism from Kyiv as it defends against Russia’s grinding invasion.

Speaking to members of the Indian diaspora in Warsaw after his arrival Tuesday, Modi said India is stressing “diplomacy and dialogue.”

“India’s view is absolutely clear – this is not the era of war,” Modi said, adding that the country was a “big advocate of permanent peace in this region.”

“This is the time to unite to deal with the challenges which pose the greatest threat to humanity,” he said.

Modi’s expected meetings this week – with leaders from Poland, a key NATO member, on Thursday and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday – come during an inflection point in the war. Ukrainian forces earlier this month launched an unprecedented offensive into Russian territory, nearly two and half years after Moscow’s invasion.

New Delhi has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Ukraine, but refrained from condemning Russia’s assault as it seeks to maintain relations with Moscow – a long-standing partner it sees as key to balancing a strained relationship with China.

Historic visits

In Poland, Modi is slated to meet President Andrzej Duda and take part in talks with Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The discussions will focus on enhancing cooperation, as well as “regional and global issues of mutual interest,” according to India’s Foreign Ministry, which said this was the first visit of an Indian prime minister to the Eastern European country in 45 years.

During his visit to Ukraine, Modi is expected to meet Zelensky and hold discussions on what India’s foreign ministry described as “the entire gamut of bilateral relations,” including economic ties, infrastructure and defense.

“This landmark visit, of course, takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which will also form part of discussions,” ministry secretary for the West, Tanmaya Lal, said in a briefing on Monday.

International efforts to find a path to ending the war have so far fallen flat.

The US and its NATO allies have continued to stress unwavering support for Kyiv, which maintains that peace must be predicated on the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory. Major Global South countries, including India as well as China and Brazil, have increasingly tried to position themselves as potential peace brokers – typically calling for both sides to be engaged in dialogue toward peace conditions.

Modi has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Ukraine, without condemning Russia. India has also abstained from all United Nations resolutions calling for Russian withdrawal and condemning its actions.

Heavily reliant on the Kremlin for its military equipment, India has ramped up purchases of discounted Russian crude oil since the start of the war, giving Putin a financial lifeline as he faces Western sanctions.

India attended a Ukraine-backed international peace summit in Switzerland in June but, like several major economies of the Global South, did not endorse a joint communique at the end of the gathering. China did not attend, citing Russia’s exclusion.

Modi’s visit to Russia last month coincided with a Russian assault on several Ukrainian cities and a deadly strike on a children’s hospital. The prime minister did not directly address the strikes, but made what appeared to be some of his most critical comments to date on the war.

“Whether it’s conflict, war or terror, any person who believes in humanity is troubled when there are deaths, especially when innocent children die,” Modi said then, while calling for a “path to peace through dialogue.”

Zelensky condemned that meeting, describing it as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

Modi and Zelensky have met twice on the sidelines of G7 summits since the start of the war, including this past June in Italy.

Authorities have urged civilians in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk to evacuate immediately in the face of rapidly advancing Russian forces, while Moscow claims to have repelled an attempted Ukrainian incursion into the border region of Bryansk.

Communities in and around Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine, are being urged to flee within the next two weeks as Russian forces are rapidly advancing.

“Don’t wait. It will not get better, it will only get worse. Leave.” That was the stark warning of local official Yurii Tretiak, the head of the military administration in the town of Myrnohrad, which is now less than 3 miles (4.8km) from the frontline.

There are nearly 59,000 residents in the entire community, which encompasses Pokrovsk City, Myrnohrad town and 39 surrounding villages, according to the Pokrovsk City military administration. Roughly 600 to 700 people have been evacuating daily, the administration said.

“The enemy is advancing faster than expected,” Tretiak said in a radio interview on Tuesday. “So we are trying to do as much as possible to evacuate people by the end of the week.”

While Pokrovsk is not a major city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war and many have left since the start of the full-scale invasion – it serves as a key hub for the Ukrainian military thanks to its easy access to Kostiantynivka, another military center.

Ukrainian troops use the road connecting the two to resupply the front lines and evacuate casualties toward Dnipro.

Children with their parents or other legal representatives will be forcibly evacuated from certain districts of eater Ukraine’s Donetsk region, including the Pokrovsk district, according to the Ukrainian ministry responsible for the reintegration of regions that previously fell under Russian control.

But Tretiak said many people are still reluctant to leave – even going so far as to hide their kids from local authorities, promoting the military administration to make house visits.

“We have cases when parents hide their children. Today (August 20) we will have a meeting with the police to discuss how we will work with such people, how we will search for such parents who hide children and give false information that the children have long since left,” he said, noting that dangers are increasing with some areas of town facing daily attacks.

“Those who hesitated a week ago have mostly decided and are leaving en masse,” he said, noting that for residents who have yet to evacuate, “the most common argument is that ‘I have nowhere to go’ or ‘no one needs me.’”

The evacuations come as Ukraine’s Armed forces said Wednesday that Pokrovsk is now “the hottest” front of the war. “The situation in the Pokrovsk sector remains tense. Ukrainian troops repelled 11 attacks, fighting continues in four locations,” Ukraine’s Armed Forced said in the latest update.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukrainian forces are being reinforced in the eastern region to repel a potential Russian advance.

In his nightly address, Zelensky said: “The frontline is our position, first of all Pokrovsk direction, our Donetsk region. We understand the moves of the enemy and are strengthening ourselves.”

Russia claims attempted incursion

Meanwhile, Russian forces repelled a Ukrainian incursion attempt into the border region of Bryansk on Wednesday, according to the local governor.

“On August 21, an attempt to infiltrate the Ukrainian DRG into the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped in the Klimovsky district of the Bryansk region,” regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said on his official Telegram channel Thursday.

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) forces and military units responded to the Ukrainian attempt to break through, Bogomaz said, adding the area where the clashes took place is now stable and under Russian control.

Ukraine has not commented on the alleged incursion.

Ukraine has previously targeted the Bryansk region in operations launched since its incursion into Russia more than two weeks ago.

Ukraine’s bold cross-border advance in Russia’s Kursk region has seen Kyiv’s troops claim over 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory and take out key bridges in the western part of the country.

The assault – which poses a major embarrassment for the Kremlin – represents a notable change in tactics for Kyiv, marking the first time foreign troops have entered Russian territory since World War II.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hailed “flourishing” trade ties with China during a meeting with a top Chinese official in Moscow as the two countries bolster their partnership in the face of mounting frictions with the West.

Speaking to Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Putin said Russia-China “large-scale joint plans and projects” in economic and humanitarian areas would “continue for many years,” according to a Kremlin readout.

Li, China’s No. 2 official under leader Xi Jinping, had traveled to Moscow for a longstanding annual meeting with Russia’s prime minister, which focused on economic and practical cooperation as the Kremlin continues to look to Beijing for economic partnership as its war with Ukraine grinds on.

In his remarks to Putin, the Chinese premier hailed efforts by the Russian leader and Xi to “inject strong momentum” into “deepening bilateral relations and cooperation,” according to Chinese state media.

Li’s four-day trip, which will include a stop in Russian ally Belarus, is the first visit to Russia by a high-level Chinese official since the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine took on a new dimension following a surprise, ongoing military incursion by Ukrainian forces into the Russian border region of Kursk two weeks ago.

Russia has been scrambling to repel that assault, which marks the first time foreign troops entered Russian territory since World War II and comes amid mounting pressure for a conclusion to the war in Ukraine, which began in 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

The Kremlin has become increasingly reliant on China’s market, goods and investment since the start of the war, when it was slapped with broad international sanctions – and both Moscow and Beijing see the other as a key counterweight against a West they see as seeking to suppress their development.

In his meeting Wednesday with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Li said China was ready to work with Russia to strengthen “all-round practical cooperation” and stressed that the countries’ relations did not “target any third party.”

The two nominal heads of government agreed to expand bilateral economic and trade cooperation and pledged to oppose any attempt to restrict their “economic development, technological progress, and international development,” according to Chinese state media.

“Certain countries” obstruct the “collective rise of emerging markets and developing countries,” the two officials said, using typical language to refer to their shared view on the United States and its allies.

An official readout from the meeting released by China’s Foreign Ministry did not mention the war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Li, Mishustin said Russia and China were “in a difficult external situation” as Western countries impose “illegitimate sanctions under far-fetched pretexts” and seek to “contain the economic and technological potential of Russia and China.”

“That is why it is important to concentrate efforts on protecting our common interests, building a multipolar world order and strengthening coordination on international platforms,” he said, according to Russian state media.

Record trade

Beijing has faced mounting scrutiny and pressure from the West to curtail the export of dual-use goods such as aerospace, manufacturing and technology equipment to Russia, which Western leaders and Kyiv have alleged are propping up the Russian war effort.

Chinese officials have sought to present the country as a neutral, aspiring peace broker in the war, but have had limited high-level contact with Kyiv while continuing to deepen relations with Moscow across trade, diplomacy and security.

China last month hosted a top Ukrainian official for the first time since Russia’s invasion of the country nearly two and half years ago.

Last week, in response to a media inquiry on the situation in Kursk, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry called on “all parties” not to expand the battlefield, escalate fighting and “fuel the flame,” saying China would continue to work for a “political settlement of the crisis.”

Wednesday’s meeting between Li and Mishustin is part of annual talks held since 1996, typically focused on economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation and seen as a means to implement broader policy direction set by Xi and Putin.

Following Wednesday’s talks, the two sides signed a host of cooperation documents in areas including science and technology, chemical industry, maritime search and rescue, and cross-border cargo transport, according to Chinese state media.

Trade between China and Russia hit record highs last year, surpassing a target of $240 billion ahead of schedule. Russia has grown hugely reliant on China’s market, goods and investment since it was slapped with broad international sanctions following its Ukraine invasion.

Bilateral trade increased by more than a quarter year-on-year in 2023 from 2022, but has only grown about 1.6% between January and July this year over the same period last year, according to China’s customs data.

Li is expected to end his four-day trip in Belarus, where he will meet Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko for an “in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields,” China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Brazil will begin imposing restrictions on the entry of some foreign citizens from Asia who are seeking refuge in the South American nation as a means to migrate to the United States and Canada, the justice ministry’s press office said Wednesday.

The move, which will start on Monday, will affect Asian migrants who require visas to remain in Brazil.

A Federal Police investigation has shown these migrants often buy flights with layovers in Sao Paulo’s international airport, en route to other destinations, but stay in Brazil as a place from where they then begin their journey north, according to official documents provided to The Associated Press.

More than 70% of requests for refuge at the airport come from people with either Indian, Nepalese or Vietnamese nationalities, one of the documents says.

Starting next week, travelers without visas will either have to continue their journey by plane or return to their country of origin, the ministry said.

A report signed by federal police investigator Marinho da Silva Rezende Júnior informs the justice ministry that since the beginning of last year there has been “great turmoil” due to the influx of migrants at the airport in Guarulhos, the second most populous city in the state of Sao Paulo.

“Evidence suggests that those migrants, in their majority, are making use of the known — and extremely dangerous — route that goes from Sao Paulo to the western state of Acre, so they can access Peru and go toward Central America and then, finally, reach the US from its southern border,” one of the documents says.

An AP investigation in July found migrants passing through the Amazon, including some from Vietnam and India. Many returned to Acre, on the border with Peru, as US border policies triggered a wait-and-see attitude among them.

Brazil’s justice ministry said that the new guidelines will not apply to 484 migrants currently staying at Sao Paulo’s international airport.

Earlier on Wednesday, Brazil’s federal prosecutors’ office said in a statement that Sao Paulo’s international airport “is once again counting a high number of foreigners who arrive on flights of the airline LATAM and do not exit quickly due to the overload on the Brazilian migration system.”

The prosecutors’ office added that it will put pressure on airlines to give migrants some basic supplies as they wait for their concession of refuge. The term refers to an application for refugee status, regardless of the reason.

LATAM did not immediately respond a request for comment from the AP.

“It is important that we quickly decide on these refuge requests so that the growing arrival of foreigners does not impact the operation of the airport itself,” federal prosecutor Guilherme Rocha Göpfert said after a meeting at Sao Paulo’s international airport on Wednesday.

One of the documents says Brazil’s federal police received 9,082 requests for refuge this year through July 15. That is more than double the amount for the whole 2023, and the most in over a decade, according to the figures.

Brazil has historically welcomed refugees, particularly Afghans in recent years, regardless of ideological leanings of the Latin American country’s leaders.

But reports of migrants seeking refugee status as a means to use Brazil as a waystation has caused frustration in the government, particularly at a time when the system is burdened by many people from Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine seeking humanitarian visas.

Brazil granted 11,248 humanitarian visas to Afghans alone between between Sept. 2021 and April 2024, government figures show.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva decided in January 2023, in the early days of his administration, to bring his country back to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, an intergovernmental agreement.

His administration has kept humanitarian visas, but guidelines for the concession of those has become more restrictive under his administration.