US President Joe Biden urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate border tensions with Ukraine and proposed the two leader hold a summit in the coming months, dpa reported. The White House said in a statement that Biden spoke by phone with Putin on Tuesday to discuss a range of issues, from arms control to cyberattacks and fresh worries over the amassing of Russian troops on the Ukraine border.

US federal health authorities called on Tuesday for a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, after reports of extremely rare blood clotting cases in women under 50. The decision is another fresh setback to efforts to tackle the pandemic, as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said that these news mean a delay in the rollout of the vaccine to Europe.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to hold talks with Iranian leaders on topics including how to salvage a nuclear agreement with world powers, DPA reports.

China told the United States on Tuesday to stop playing with fire over Taiwan and lodged a complaint after Washington issued guidelines that will enable US officials to meet more freely with officials from the island that China claims as its own.

International agencies including the World Health Organization urged countries on Tuesday to suspend the sale of live wild mammals in food markets, warning they may be the source of more than 70% of emerging infectious diseases in humans.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia on Tuesday to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern border in what the alliance says is Moscow’s biggest build-up since 2014, ahead of an emergency meeting of allied foreign and defence ministers.

Iran's foreign ministry said Monday it is suspending cooperation with the European Union in various fields following the bloc's decision to blacklist several Iranian security officials over a 2019 protest crackdown, AFP reports.

The United States will boost its military presence in Germany with 500 more soldiers, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced during a visit to Berlin on Tuesday, dpa reported.

Confusion and complacency in addressing Covid-19 means the pandemic is a long way from over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday, cited by Reuters.

Japan decided to start releasing radioactive water accumulated at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea after treatment, despite local opposition and concerns from neighbouring countries, dpa reported. PM Yoshihide Suga’s cabinet made the decision on Tuesday morning, which comes a decade after the nation’s worst atomic disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.