The Latest Breaking News from Thomas Peter

Here are key quotes from President Xi Jinping's speech on Sunday opening the 20th congress of China's ruling Communist Party, a week-long event where he is widely expected to win a third leadership term and cement his place as the country's most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.

China's 20th Communist Party Congress kicks off on Sunday, with Xi Jinping widely expected to clinch his third five-year stint in charge - a mandate that would secure his stature as the country's most powerful ruler since founding leader Mao Zedong.

As China's record heatwave starts to subside, farmers are assessing the damage caused by a prolonged drought and the government is urging them to replant or switch crops where they can.

Germany has been criticised by a global watchdog for failing to do enough to tackle money laundering, such as by prosecuting very few for the crime despite being one of the globe's biggest cash centres.

As the tinder-dry countryside along China's Yangtze river basin withers under a heatwave that has lasted more than two months, veteran farmer Chen Xiaohua recalled the last severe drought to hit his crops more than 60 years ago.

China has issued its first national drought alert of the year as authorities battle forest fires and mobilise specialist teams to protect crops from scorching temperatures across the Yangtze river basin.

The city of Beijing on Thursday declared an initial victory in its latest battle with COVID-19 after testing millions of people and quarantining thousands in the past week to stem an outbreak prolonged by a sudden wave of cases linked to a bar.

Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv restarted its metro service on Tuesday and asked the hundreds of people who had used the underground as a bomb shelter for the last three months to free up the train carriages, but many said they were still too scared to return home.

Moscow signalled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists in the East as Ukrainian forces went on the offensive to recapture towns outside the capital Kyiv.