World News updates: Zelenskyy visits Moscow-friendly Serbia as Russian strikes kill 4 in Kyiv region

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Serbia on Saturday as he condemned fresh Russian attacks on Kyiv and surrounding areas that killed four people, including a child.

Zelenskyy arrived in Belgrade on Friday for his first official visit to Serbia, one of the few European countries that has maintained close relations with Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reviews an honour guard with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic during a welcome ceremony at the Serbia Palace, in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday (AP Photo)

Speaking alongside Zelenskyy, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic described Ukraine as a “friendly nation” and said he was honoured to welcome the Ukrainian leader, whose visit was the first by a Ukrainian president to Serbia in eight years.

The two leaders discussed Ukraine and Serbia's efforts to join the European Union, bilateral relations and ways to expand cooperation.

The visit came as Russian forces launched another overnight barrage of drones and missiles against Ukraine. Kyiv's air defences, already under pressure from shortages of interceptors, are struggling to counter the attacks.

Zelenskyy flags shortage of Patriot missiles

Zelenskyy said deliveries of Patriot air-defence interceptors to Ukraine had slowed compared with last year.

“There are fewer of these missiles in 2026. In 2025 there were more, I’ll tell you honestly, in terms of monthly supplies,” he said.

The Ukrainian president said Washington had agreed to allow Ukraine to manufacture its own Patriot interceptors, but the process was being held up by licensing and other paperwork.

“The process for some of these licenses is also taking a long time,” Zelenskyy said.

Patriot systems are particularly important for Ukraine because they are the only air-defence weapons in its arsenal capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, according to Ukrainian officials.

Child killed with grandparents

The Russian strikes hit several areas around Kyiv. In the Brovary district northeast of the capital, multiple Russian drones destroyed a family home, killing a 3-year-old child and the child's grandparents, local officials said.

Three other members of the family and a neighbour who came to help were hospitalised. The house was reduced to rubble, while nearby outbuildings and cars were also damaged. Zelenskyy said another person was killed in a strike involving six ballistic missiles against civilian infrastructure in Kyiv.

Serbia maintains ties with Russia

Zelenskyy's visit to Serbia carries significance because Belgrade has maintained close ties with Moscow despite Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Serbia has refused to impose sanctions on Russia, a position that has drawn pressure from the European Union.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has likened President Donald Trump’s gold-heavy White House renovations to the palaces of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, saying the changes reflect the president’s “narcissistic personality”.

Speaking to journalist Kara Swisher on her Pivot podcast Friday, Clinton recalled visiting Baghdad after Saddam Hussein’s fall, when she was a US senator, CNN reported. She said she had meetings in some of the former Iraqi leader’s palaces and found similarities with the changes now being made inside the White House.

“You know what? That’s a very—I was in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein. I was then a senator, and I had meetings in some of his palaces. They were quite reminiscent of what we are seeing in our own White House. It’s just insane,” Clinton said. READ HERE

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday accused Iran of firing a missile at a vessel linked to state oil giant ADNOC as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz, condemning the incident as a "hostile" attack and accusing Tehran of "acts of piracy", Reuters reported.

A small boat sails past cargo ships and other commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday. (AP)

UAE state news agency WAM initially cited ADNOC as saying one of its vessels had been targeted by a missile early Saturday. The company said the situation was under control.

The UAE Foreign Ministry later condemned what it described as an Iranian attack on the vessel. Authorities did not provide details about the ship, its cargo or whether it sustained damage. No injuries were reported.

UAE accuses Iran of 'acts of piracy'

The UAE Foreign Ministry said the attack violated a United Nations Security Council resolution protecting freedom of navigation.

It accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of targeting commercial vessels and using control over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz as a means of exerting economic pressure.

The ministry called on Tehran to halt such attacks and reopen the strategic waterway "fully and unconditionally".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have previously threatened action against vessels passing through the strait if they are linked to Tehran's adversaries or fail to follow Iranian directives, Reuters reported.

15 ADNOC vessels attacked since Iran conflict began

The latest incident comes after ADNOC said on Friday that 15 of its vessels had been targeted by missiles and drones while passing through the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Israel conflict with Iran began on February 28.

Three of those attacks occurred this week, the company said.

The attacks have killed one crew member and injured 20 others, according to ADNOC.

However, the company did not identify who was responsible for those earlier attacks.

ADNOC said the continuing attacks on its personnel and assets had significantly affected its operations, although it was continuing to meet customer requirements despite what it described as an "exceptionally challenging environment".

Why the Strait of Hormuz matters

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most important energy corridors, connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

Before the latest conflict, roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, Reuters reported.

Shipping through the strait has faced repeated disruptions since the US-Israel conflict with Iran began, pushing up freight costs and raising concerns over the security of global energy supplies.

ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi state oil company, is one of the world's largest energy producers and exports crude oil, natural gas and refined petroleum products worldwide.

(With inputs from agencies)

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday that reopening the Strait of Hormuz would not depend on ongoing talks between Iran and Oman, but on the United States accepting Tehran's conditions.

People spend time at a beach as commercial vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday. (AP photo)

The statement came a day after a US official said progress had been made in talks involving Iran and Oman that could lead to the reopening of the strategic waterway and potentially restore oil exports disrupted by the five-month-old US war with Iran.

The IRGC said the reopening of the strait was subject to "specific mechanisms and conditions" set by Iran and was not linked to the negotiations between Tehran and Muscat.

The comments cast doubt on US claims of progress towards reopening the waterway, through which a significant share of the world's oil shipments passes.

(With inputs from Reuters)

US President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Todd Blanche was narrowly confirmed as attorney general on Saturday, overcoming resistance from some Republican senators over his independence, his handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents and his role in agreements benefiting Trump and his family.

Blanche was confirmed by a 50-49 Senate vote, with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voting against him. Senator Bill Cassidy provided the decisive vote after saying Blanche was the best candidate Trump was likely to nominate, news agency Reuters reported.

The confirmation ends weeks of uncertainty over Blanche's nomination. He has served as acting attorney general since April and previously held the Justice Department's No. 2 position.

Why did some Republicans oppose Blanche?

Republican concerns centred on whether Blanche would be sufficiently independent from Trump and resist pressure from the White House.

Senators also questioned his handling of the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents and his role in establishing Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund.

Blanche eventually secured enough support after agreeing in writing to narrow a tax-immunity arrangement involving Trump and his family and to end payments under the anti-weaponisation programme.

Critics have described the fund as a potential slush fund for Trump's allies, including people involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

What did Blanche agree to?

The commitments were central to winning over Republican holdouts.

Blanche agreed to narrow an arrangement that prevented the Internal Revenue Service from auditing previous tax returns filed by Trump, his sons and their family business. The arrangement emerged from Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, Reuters reported.

He also agreed to end the anti-weaponisation payments.

However, questions remain over whether those commitments are legally binding and whether Trump could later ask Blanche to revive a similar programme under a different name.

Murkowski's concerns

Murkowski said she lacked confidence that Blanche could "check the worst impulses" of the Trump administration.

She cited concerns over the handling of the Epstein files, immunity protections granted to Trump and his family businesses, statements made to anti-abortion groups and what she described as the targeting of individuals ranging from former administration officials to sitting senators.

Cassidy had also criticised Blanche's role in settling Trump's IRS lawsuit but ultimately said he trusted him to provide the president with candid legal advice.

What changes at the Justice Department?

Blanche now takes permanent charge of a Justice Department that has undergone major changes during Trump's second term.

Reuters reported that the department has pursued prosecutions of Trump's perceived political enemies, seen large numbers of career prosecutors leave and said it operates at the direction of the president — a departure from longstanding expectations of Justice Department independence.

Federal judges have also criticised prosecutors in several cases for pursuing what they considered weak charges, while grand juries have declined to indict in some instances.

Political appointees have removed senior career officials regarded as resistant to the administration's agenda, while staffing has fallen sharply in areas including the civil rights division and ethics office.

Blanche's defence of his record

Blanche has defended his tenure, arguing that the Justice Department has helped bring crime to record lows and corrected what he described as wrongs committed by the Biden administration against Trump and his conservative allies.

His supporters say he remains committed to the department's core law-enforcement mission.

Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Blanche a "tough, fair prosecutor dedicated to the rule of law" and said his leadership would bring that approach across the Justice Department.

Blanche, who spent nearly a decade as a career prosecutor in New York before becoming Trump's lawyer, was ultimately viewed by some Republican skeptics as the most acceptable choice Trump could have made. They argued that his permanent appointment could make him more willing to resist pressure from the White House.

Typhoon Dolphin lashed Japan's southern Okinawa prefecture on Saturday, injuring six people and cutting power to more than 50,000 buildings. Meanwhile, China has shut ports and halted ferries ahead of the storm's expected arrival on its east coast.

Five elderly people, three of whom fell due to strong winds, suffered non-life-threatening injuries in ⁠Okinawa while ​another person was injured in Kagoshima prefecture, authorities said.

Nearly 39,000 buildings were without power in Kagoshima while just over 12,000 were affected in Okinawa. Domestic airlines, ANA and Japan Airlines, cancelled flights to and from Okinawa, Associated Press reported.

The US' Federal Aviation Administration said a helicopter helping battle a Utah wildfire has crashed. There is no news of the two people aboard the aircraft.

Five months after the US-Iran war began, there is no end to the ongoing conflict at sight. Despite repeated timelines, Trump has failed to achieve what he promised at the start of the conflict: the fall of the Iranian regime and the people taking over the reins from the clergy.

However, Iranian leaders feel their own victory is at hand and won't require the same epic patience. They are betting that military pressure will ultimately force the US to accept their control over the crucial waterway for global energy.

Tehran knows that the US stockpile of weapons, including advanced missile interceptors is diminishing. They know the war is deeply unpopular with Americans. They know that as long as the strait is largely closed, the price of gas and other goods will stay high ahead of US congressional elections in November. They know that trying to open it by force would be costly and may require American ground troops. They know their Houthi allies in Yemen could widen the war and disrupt another major trade route.

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from AP)

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from AP)

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The US Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill targeting Russia and the countries that buy its oil and gas including India and China with lawmakers arguing that such trade helps finance Moscow's war in Ukraine.

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(With inputs from PTI)

A helicopter helping fight a major wildfire in central Utah crashed on Friday, and federal officials have so far given no word on the condition of the two people who were on board.

Key points:

(With inputs from AP)