US climate envoy John Kerry held four hours of talks with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing yesterday, calling for “urgent action” as the two countries revived stalled diplomacy on reducing planet-warming emissions.

An eight-party alliance seeking to form Thailand’s next government reaffirmed its backing for Pita Limjaroenrat to become premier, Pita said yesterday, despite his defeat last week in a parliamentary vote.

Singapore’s parliament Speaker and a woman MP yesterday resigned over an “inappropriate” affair, plunging the ruling party into further turmoil following a rare high-level corruption probe involving a cabinet minister.

Temperatures reached new highs yesterday as heatwaves scorched parts of the Northern Hemisphere, triggering health warnings and fanning wildfires in the latest stark reminder of the effects of global warming.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister dismissed the idea of talks with the United States as “a daydream” yesterday, the eve of the first US-South Korean meeting on nuclear deterrence.

The US, South Korea and Japan held a joint naval missile defence exercise yesterday to counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats, the South’s navy said, days after the North launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

US climate envoy John Kerry arrived in China yesterday, state media reported, to restart stalled talks between the world’s two biggest emitters of planet-warming gases.

Japan yesterday issued heatstroke alerts to tens of millions of people as near-record high temperatures scorched swathes of the country, while torrential rain pummelled other regions.

Iranian police yesterday relaunched patrols to catch the increasing number of women leaving their hair uncovered in public in defiance of a strict dress code, state media reported.

Italy issued hot weather red alerts for 16 cities yesterday, with meteorologists warning that temperatures will hit record highs across southern Europe in the coming days.

Rescuers yesterday battled to reach people trapped in a flooded tunnel in South Korea, where at least 37 people have died and 9 are missing after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia had a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster bombs and reserved the right to use them if such munitions, the use of which he said he regarded as a crime, were deployed against Russian forces in Ukraine.

Air strikes pummelled Khartoum yesterday and fighting raged in Sudan’s western Darfur region, witnesses said, as a three-month war between the army and rival paramilitaries showed no signs of abating.

The great-great-granddaughter of a police officer who investigated the “Jack the Ripper” murders in 19th century London believes she has uncovered the killer’s true identity, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Czech Marketa Vondrousova stunned Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday to become the first unseeded player in the professional era to win the Wimbledon women’s singles title.

Canadian wildfires have burned more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) this year, a record-breaking figure which will continue to rise in the coming weeks, government data showed yesterday.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Park Jin on Friday called on China to play a “constructive role” in curbing North Korea’s threats, after Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this week.

Sudanese army representatives have returned to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for talks with their paramilitary foes, a government source said yesterday as the war between rival generals entered its fourth month.

China’s top diplomat urged India to focus on “common interests” and meet China “halfway” to defuse border tensions between Asia’s most populous neighbours, the Chinese foreign ministry said yesterday.

Four Indigenous children who survived 40 days in the Colombian Amazon have been released from a military hospital after a monthlong stay, authorities said Friday, adding that the siblings were doing “very well.”