Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologised to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev for the "tragic incident" which happened in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed after air defences were used against Ukrainian drones. Reports claimed that Russian air defences had mistakenly shot it down. The crash killed at least 38 people.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has shared a video as he survived a bomb attack carried out by Israel in Yemen. "We faced a very dangerous attack, but my UN colleagues and I are now safe. We successfully evacuated our wounded colleague to Amman, and he is stable," he wrote. He was at Sanaa International Airport when the attack happened.

Slovakia PM Robert Fico threatened to cut off backup electricity supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv stopped transporting Russian gas to Central Europe. Slovakia has been trying to preserve Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine in 2025. Ukraine, however, has refused to renew a transit deal with Russia expiring at the end of the year while they remain at war.

Russia's spy service SVR on Saturday alleged that the US and UK are preparing "terrorist acts" against Russian military bases in Syria, state-run RIA news agency reported. "The role of perpetrators is assigned to militants of the terrorist group ISIS, released from prison by the new authorities in recent times," SVR said. SVR didn't provide any evidence for the allegations.

Israel used the US' Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to intercept a projectile for the first time. Israel used the system to target a ballistic missile fired from Yemen which was reportedly launched by the Houthi rebels. The American defence system is capable of intercepting missiles both inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, reports said.

After US President-elect Donald Trump appointed Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence, an X user posted a racist picture showing Krishnan as butter chicken. An investor, Jason, called out the troll, saying, "These racist attacks are disgusting. Sriram...is awesome." Elon Musk reacted to Jason's comment with a 'Hundred Points' emoticon.

Mary Kenneth Keller, a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, holds a remarkable place in history as the first woman in the United States to earn a PhD in computer science. Her extraordinary achievements demonstrate how barriers of gender, profession, and faith can be transcended to contribute significantly to the world.

The Afghan Taliban attacked "several points" in neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said on Saturday. This comes days after aerial bombardment carried out inside Afghanistan by Pakistani aircraft claimed the lives of at least 46 people. No details of casualties or specific areas targeted were provided by the Afghan Defence Ministry.

Over 1 million non-immigrant visas were issued to Indians for the second consecutive year, as per US embassy in India. It stated that India also remained the largest sender of international graduate students in the US for the second year. Moreover, the embassy noted the successful completion of a pilot programme allowing Indians to renew H1-B visas without leaving US.

One of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals has been "forcibly" evacuated by the Israeli military, Gaza officials said, adding that it has detained the hospital's director Hossam Abu Safiyeh. "The occupation forces have taken...medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital to a detention centre for interrogation," a statement read. The operation had put the hospital out of service, the WHO stated.