PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday he thinks relations between the United States and China are on the “right trail” and suggested progress was made during a rare trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“We’re on the right trail here,” Biden said of U.S.-China relations. Asked by reporters whether he felt progress had been made, he replied, “It’s been made.”

Biden also praised Blinken and said “he did a hell of a job.”

China and the United States agreed on Monday to stabilize their intense rivalry so it doesn’t veer into conflict but failed to produce any major breakthrough.

(This story has been corrected to show Biden suggested progress was made)

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in California and Nandita Bose in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Humeyra Pamuk

BEIJING (Reuters) -China and the United States agreed on Monday to stabilize their intense rivalry so it does not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any major breakthrough during a rare visit to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed “progress” after shaking hands with Blinken at the Great Hall of the People, a grand venue usually reserved for greeting heads of state.

The top U.S. diplomat and Xi both stressed the importance of having a more stable relationship, as any conflict between the world’s two largest economies would create global disruption.

China refused to entertain Washington’s bid to resume military-to-military communication channels, citing U.S. sanctions as the obstacle. The two sides appeared entrenched in their positions over everything from Taiwan to trade, including U.S. actions toward China’s chip industry, human rights and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden said later on Monday he thinks relations between the two countries are on the right path, and indicated that progress was made during Blinken’s trip.

“We’re on the right trail here,” Biden said of U.S.-China relations. Asked by reporters during a trip to California whether he felt progress had been made, he replied, “I don’t feel,” he said. “You know it’s been made.”

Biden said of Blinken: “He did a hell of a job.”

At one of the most significant U.S.-China exchanges since Biden took office, it was not clear how the countries would overcome their differences. The sides agreed to continue diplomatic engagement with more visits in the coming weeks and months.

ACHIEVED OBJECTIVES

At a news conference concluding his two-day trip to Beijing, the first by a U.S. secretary of state since 2018, Blinken said Washington had achieved its objectives for the trip, including raising concerns directly, trying to set up channels for dialogue and exploring areas of cooperation. The trip was postponed in February after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew through U.S. airspace.

But he said progress was not straightforward.

“The relationship was at a point of instability, and both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it,” Blinken said before leaving China.

“But progress is hard. It takes time. And it’s not the product of one visit, one trip, one conversation. My hope and expectation is: we will have better communications, better engagement going forward.”

U.S. officials had been playing down the prospect of a major breakthrough, but hoped Blinken’s visit would pave the way for more bilateral meetings, including possible trips by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

It had been hoped that it would even pave the way for a summit between Xi and Biden later in the year.

Biden and Xi last met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia in November, pledging more frequent communication, although ties have since deteriorated.

“The two sides have also made progress and reached the agreement on some specific issues. This is very good,” Xi told Blinken on Monday across a long table adorned with pink flowers.

Blinken responded by saying the two countries have a responsibility to manage their relationship.

His meetings in Beijing, including talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and foreign minister Qin Gang, had been “candid and constructive,” Blinken added.

It was not clear from Xi’s remarks what progress he was referring to, although he told Blinken that China “hopes to see a sound and steady China-U.S. relationship” and believes that the countries “can overcome various difficulties,” according to a Chinese readout of the talks.

Xi also urged Washington not to “hurt China’s legitimate rights and interests,” a signal of potential flashpoints such as Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing claims as its own.

Blinken said he made clear the United States needs much greater cooperation from China on stemming the flow of fentanyl and the sides agreed to set up a working group on the matter.

TAIWAN CORE ISSUE

The lack of open communication channels between the two countries has prompted international jitters, and Beijing’s reluctance to engage in regular military-to-military talks with Washington has alarmed China’s neighbors.

Speaking to reporters after the talks, senior foreign ministry official Yang Tao said U.S. sanctions were blocking progress on improving military-to-military communications.

Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu has been sanctioned since 2018 over the purchase of combat aircraft and equipment from Russia’s main arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.

Asked what specific progress the two sides had made, Yang said they had agreed to prevent a downward spiral in relations. The official added that Chinese foreign minister Qin had accepted Blinken’s request to visit the United States.

Xi’s comments, and the diplomatic choreography of the visit, appeared to signal a will to make progress, analysts said.

“China’s messaging has been pretty positive,” said Wu Xinbo, a professor and director at the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

“China showed that it still hopes to work with the U.S. to stabilize and improve relations. I think that while China is not optimistic about Sino-U.S. relations, it has not given up hope either.”

Beijing’s tone on Taiwan was particularly pointed throughout Blinken’s visit.

“China has no room for compromise or concessions,” said Wang, according to the Chinese readout.

The United States has long stuck to a policy of “strategic ambiguity” over whether it would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan, which Beijing has refused to rule out.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Beijing; Additional reporting by Jason Xue in Shanghai, Sophie Yu, Yew Lun Tian, Dominique Patton, Joe Cash in Beijing, Jeanny Kao and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk, John Geddie, Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Andrew Heavens and Lisa Shumaker)

By Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Monday it had driven Russian forces out of an eighth village in its two-week-old counteroffensive and a defence official vowed Kyiv’s “biggest blow” lay ahead despite tough resistance from Moscow’s troops.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces had retaken Piatykhatky, a settlement on a heavily fortified part of the front line near the most direct route to the country’s Azov Sea coast.

This was part of an advance by Kyiv of up to seven km (4.3 miles) into Russian lines in two weeks, capturing 113 square km (44 square miles) of land.

“The enemy will not easily give up their positions, and we must prepare ourselves for a tough duel,” Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app. The military “are moving as they should have been moving. And the biggest blow is yet to come.”

She said the fiercest fighting was in the east and south of Ukraine. Separately, she said Ukraine’s military was preventing a Russian advance in the east where it concentrated its units, including air assault troops.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address that Kyiv’s military was moving forward in some sectors and defending against intensified attacks in others. But the net outcome was favourable for Ukraine, he said.

“We have no lost positions, only liberated ones. And they have only losses,” he said.

Two slick videos released on Telegram by the Ukrainian armed forces showed what they said were attacks and advances by their forces in recapturing the village of Piatykhatky, including several strikes on Russian positions and a convoy. The video shows thick smoke rising from the area. Columns of Ukrainian armoured vehicles are seen advancing down a country road.

The video concluded with soldiers of the 128th separate assault brigade standing in front of a colonnaded building with Ukrainian flags and saying they have liberated the village.

Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video but could not independently verify the date.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces wrote on Facebook that anti-aircraft units had shot down four cruise missiles and four Iranian-made drones in the last 24 hours.

It said Russia had shelled more than a dozen towns and villages in the Zaporizhzhia region, including Piatykhatky.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield claims.

INCREMENTAL GAINS

The reported capture of the villages reflects the incremental nature of the gains so far for Ukraine along lines Moscow has spent months strengthening.

Piatykhatky is significant, however, as it lies around 90 km from the coast.

Zelenskiy said he would continue talks with Western allies to get weapons and ammunition to them as soon as possible.

Russia, hoping to dent Western resolve, said it had repelled numerous assaults and it released a video showing what its troops say is captured Western equipment, in this case a French-made tank reportedly seized in the eastern Donetsk region. It did not mention Piatykhatky.

Ukraine has acknowledged attacks along several parts of the 1,000-km-long front line in its long-anticipated counteroffensive to retake the 18% of its territory occupied by Russia, but carefully controls information for security reasons. Analysts say the main phase of the counteroffensive is yet to begin.

Both sides appear to have taken heavy losses in recent fighting and both say the other side’s are greater.

Ukraine has prepared an array of new military units for the counteroffensive, while its established brigades weathered Russia’s winter offensive in the east.

Separately, Ukraine Deputy Minister for Strategic Industries Sergiy Boyev told Reuters at the Paris Airshow on Monday that Ukraine is in talks with Western arms manufacturers to boost output of weapons, including drones, and possibly even in Ukraine.

The conflict has killed thousands of civilians, destroyed towns and cities and driven millions of people from their homes while exacerbating global inflation and reshaping security arrangements.

Russia says it invaded Ukraine to “denazify” it, an argument Ukraine and its Western allies call a pretext for a land grab.

REDEPLOYMENT?

Officials from two NATO member states said Moscow was redeploying some of its forces as it seeks to predict where Ukraine will strike.

British and Estonian intelligence officials said that Russia had been moving some forces east along the front line from areas south of the Dnipro river flooded by the destruction of the huge Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on June 6.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the unleashing of the vast reservoir. Flooding has destroyed homes and farmland along both sides of the front line in Kherson region. The death toll has risen to 52, with more than 11,000 people evacuated.

(Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Ron Popeski, Joanna Plucinska and Valerie Insinna; Writing by Philippa Fletcher, Hugh Lawson and Cynthia Osterman; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Alistair Bell and Sandra Maler)

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -One of Honduras’ leading anti-corruption advocates on Monday said she had left the Central American nation because of threats, weeks after accusing President Xiomara Castro’s government of nepotism.

Gabriela Castellanos, executive director of the National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA), which has investigated public corruption in Honduras for nearly a decade, left the country on Sunday with her family and traveled to the United States, she told local media.

“Given the situation of insecurity facing my family and myself, we decided to leave the country and (hope) these events that have occurred in recent weeks can be investigated,” Castellanos said on television channel 3.

Castellanos, who had been invited to attend an event organized by the Organization of American States (OAS), did not specify where the threats were coming from or what investigation they were related to, but said they began in the past three weeks.

On May 24, the CNA published the results of an investigation alleging that the Honduran government tapped Castro’s relatives for positions in the presidency, the Cabinet, Congress and the Supreme Court.

Castro denied the claims the next day and described them as false, accusing the CNA of keeping silent during corruption in the government of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges last year.

Gerardo Torres, Castro’s deputy foreign minister, said the threats against Castellanos were not coming from within the government.

“I hope we can figure out where they’re coming from and that Ms. Castellanos can come back to the country,” he said in a press conference.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Ali Sawafta

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli forces backed by the rare use of helicopter gunships killed five Palestinians including a teenager and wounded more than 90, as a West Bank raid led to an hours-long gunbattle with armed fighters, the military and health officials said.

Eight Israeli personnel were wounded after troops came under fire during an operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin to arrest two Palestinians suspected in attacks, the military said. At least three of the Palestinians killed in the fighting belonged to the armed Islamic Jihad group.

With U.S.-sponsored peacemaking stalled for almost a decade, Jenin and other areas of the northern West Bank have been a focus of months of stepped-up sweeps by Israel amid a spate of Palestinian street attacks in its cities.

As troops faced heavy fire and a rain of explosive devices from gunmen in the city, the army was forced to mount an extraction mission to pull out the wounded and a number of its vehicles blocked in the fighting, it said.

“So that’s why you saw also our forces in a very problematic area and we had to bring in a helicopter,” an army spokesman told reporters.

The unusual use of helicopter gunships in the operation underlined the intensity of the fighting in Jenin, where armed militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have long had a strong presence in the adjoining refugee camp.

Bezalel Smotrich, the head of one of the parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition, said the government should launch a broad offensive operation “to restore deterrence” in Jenin, Nablus and other West Bank areas.

“It’s time for the gloves to come off,” he said.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel’s operations in Jenin were “a dangerous escalation that will drag the region into more bloodshed” and called on the international community to “immediately and urgently intervene”.

Video filmed by a local resident and obtained by Reuters showed an explosion enveloping an armoured troop transport as shots ring out. Other clips showed a military helicopter launching a missile and releasing flares.

Israeli media said use of helicopter gunships was a 20-year first in the West Bank. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when it had last used them there.

A military spokesperson said an Apache helicopter fired on an open area in order to drive back gunmen as casualties were extricated from the troop transport.

“We’re aware Palestinians are hit, quite a big number,” the spokesman said.

An Islamic Jihad official said the use of aircraft “will push our fighters to use tools that will surprise the enemy.”

An official from the Fatah party said fighters from the nearby cities of Nablus and Tulkarem had arrived in Jenin to support the local fighters.

NO COMPROMISES

The Palestinian health ministry said the five killed during the fighting included 15-year-old Ahmad Saqer. Islamic Jihad claimed three of the dead as members. Another 91 Palestinians were wounded, among then 23 people in critical condition, the ministry said.

Some Palestinian journalists said Israeli forces fired at them during Monday’s operation, even though they were wearing clearly identifiable blue body armour with Press markings. Video showed reporters taking cover on a rooftop as one said they were being targeted by Israeli snipers.

The head of the Red Crescent in Jenin, Mahmoud al-Saadi, told Reuters his medical teams also came under Israeli fire while transporting the wounded, damaging two ambulances.

The Israeli military said it was unaware of any fire at medics or journalists but was reviewing the incident.

“The IDF does not shoot at uninvolved individuals, and the use of live fire is made after all other options have been exhausted,” it said in a statement.

As well as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules the Gaza Strip, said a number of its fighters also took part in the clashes.

By late afternoon, the military said all its forces had left the city, where soldiers mounted a major operation in January that killed nine Palestinians and sparked a brief exchange of cross-border fire with Gaza.

The U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said that escalations like the one in Jenin risked plunging the region into a deadly crisis and said both sides should re-engage on a political path.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would employ whatever means it thought necessary.

“There are no compromises in the fight against terrorism, we will continue to take an offensive approach. We will use all the means at our disposal,” he said on Twitter.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Palestinians will “continue to defend themselves” as “their homes are being bombed, lands stolen, and children killed”.

In a separate incident late on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said 20-year-old Zakaria Zaoul was shot in the head by Israeli forces in the town of Husan near Bethlehem. At least two more Palestinians sustained gunshot wounds in clashes with Israeli forces in the area, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported. There was no immediate statement from the military.

Earlier in the evening, the Israeli military said two assailants rammed their car into soldiers operating around a checkpoint in the northern West Bank. The soldiers fired at and hit the suspects and two soldiers were wounded in the incident, a statement from the military said.

The Palestinian health ministry said two people who were shot by Israeli forces arrived for treatment at a Jenin hospital, one in critical condition.

(Writing by Dan Williams, Nidal al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie; Editing by Gareth Jones, Ed Osmond, Hugh Lawson, Peter Graff and Jonathan Oatis)

By Karolina Tagaris

MALAKASA, Greece (Reuters) -The suspected smugglers of scores of migrants who drowned in a Mediterranean Sea shipwreck last week are expected to face manslaughter charges in a Greek court this week, while Pakistan detained a dozen suspects over the disaster.

Greece recovered three more bodies on Monday, bringing the confirmed toll to 81, after a fishing boat packed with hundreds of migrants sank of its south-west coast last week in a journey which started from Libya and was supposed to end in Italy.

Only 104 people are known to have survived.

Lawyers for nine suspected smugglers held by Greece, all from Egypt, sought and were granted a postponement of their arraignment hearing to Tuesday morning, the semi-official Athens News Agency said.

One of the lawyers said his client denied he was a smuggler, saying he was instead a victim who had paid to be taken to Italy.

“He left his country looking for a better life in Europe because of economic difficulties,” said the lawyer, Athanasios Iliopoulos.

Greece was still scouring the sea on Monday, though the chance of finding more survivors was seen as virtually nil. The boat sank in some of the deepest waters of the Mediterranean.

The victims are thought to be from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt. Hundreds more are feared dead.

Greece has come under increasing scrutiny over its response to the disaster, which occurred even though the boat had been shadowed by its coastguard for several hours.

Pakistan declared a national day of mourning on Monday, after counting at least 21 victims from the Koti district in the Pakistan-administered area of the Himalayan Kashmir region. It said an initial investigation suggested the boat was carrying around 800 people.

Other estimates have said at least 400 people were aboard.

Fourteen people in Pakistan have been arrested on suspicion of alleged trafficking.

ANGUISH FOR RELATIVES

The boat is thought to have set off with passengers from the Libyan coastal city of Tobruk on June 10.

Greek authorities say the vessel, which they had monitored for about 15 hours after being alerted by Italy, flipped and capsized about 25 minutes after its engine stalled in the early hours of June 14.

Authorities said the vessel repeatedly refused Greek help, saying it wanted to go to Italy.

Alarm Phone, an advocacy group that was in communication with the vessel, said that on at least two occasions people on board pleaded for help. The group said it alerted Greek authorities and aid agencies hours before the disaster unfolded.

Greek authorities also denied reports the vessel was stationary for hours, saying that it had sailed a distance of about 30 nautical miles from its detection to its sinking.

Over a 15-hour period, that would suggest the boat going at a crawl.

Relatives have been turning up outside a migrant facility north of Athens since survivors were brought there on Friday, showing photos of the missing through the camp gates, in the hopes someone might recognise them.

“I’m looking for my brother. I want to see where the boat sunk to try to find him,” said 54-year-old Mohamed El Sayed El-Dadamony Radwan, who travelled from Germany, after reuniting with a nephew who survived.

Radwan showed a photo of his missing brother on his phone.

“I want to look for him because I can’t find (his name), not in the hospital records of those who perished or in the list of those who survived,” he said.

On Sunday, there was an emotional reunion for Syrian teenager Mohammad Hadhoud, 18, who survived the wreck, and his elder brother Fadi, who had first spotted each other through a metal barricade in the coastal city of Kalamata on Friday.

At a migrant camp in Malakasa near Athens, Mohammad sprinted into his brother’s open arms as they both sobbed, holding each other for several moments. Fadi said their brother-in-law died in the shipwreck.

Others had yet to receive news of loved ones.

“My uncle was with me on the same boat, the boat that capsized. I am looking for my uncle but I can’t find him,” said 22-year-old Egyptian survivor Atia Al Said.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Additional reporting by Abu Arqam Naqash in Muzaffarabad; writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Cynthia Osterman)

(Reuters) -One of Russia’s top spymasters said on Monday he hoped that the U.N. nuclear watchdog and the European Union would look into Ukrainian nuclear activity that he said might signal Kyiv was working on a “dirty bomb”.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, did not provide documentary evidence to back his assertions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, discounted Naryshkin’s suggestion, saying all movements of nuclear material had been fully accounted for.

The Ukrainian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kyiv has in the past said it takes its responsibilities for nuclear power very seriously while accusing Russia of recklessness when it comes to its control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.

Naryshkin said in a statement that his service had information that a batch of “irradiated fuel” had secretly been sent from the Rivne nuclear plant in western Ukraine for disposal at a spent fuel storage facility in Chornobyl.

He said the action, which Reuters could not independently verify, was suspicious and could only be explained by Kyiv intending to create a “dirty bomb”, combining radioactive material with conventional explosives.

An IAEA statement said it had reported earlier this month on the transfer of spent fuel from Rivne to Chornobyl and taken full account of the material.

The agency said it had been notified of the transfer in advance and the material was tracked “up to its final destination at the centralized spent fuel storage at Chornobyl where it remains under IAEA safeguards”.

Russia has previously accused Ukraine, without providing evidence, of planning to use such a “dirty bomb”, amid fears on both sides that fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which Russian forces seized a few days after invading Ukraine early last year in what Moscow calls its “special military operation”, could lead to a disaster.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Kevin Liffey, Francois Murphy and Cynthia Osterman)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met Pope Francis on Monday, the first official to have a private audience with him since his discharge from hospital, and told Reuters that he found the pontiff “in great spirits and in great form”.

Francis, 86, left Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday, nine days after surgery to repair an abdominal hernia.

“He was in great spirits and great form … I was really amazed. He embraced a lot of our conversation. It was a nice meeting,” said Kerry, who was the first person on the pope’s public schedule.

“I found the pope to be very much the pope that I have had the privilege of seeing several times over the last years. He was strong. He was clear. He seemed in very good form and good spirits,” Kerry, 79, said in an interview in front of St. Peter’s Square.

In 2015, Francis wrote a landmark encyclical, the highest form of papal writing, on the need to protect the environment, combat climate change and reduce use of fossil fuels.

Kerry is having a series of meetings ahead of COP28, the latest U.N. climate summit that is to be held at the end of this year in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

(This story has been refiled to remove extraneous word ‘Friday’ from paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; editing by Toby Chopra and Mark Heinrich)

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s armed forces only have around 20,000 high explosive artillery shells left, magazine Der Spiegel wrote on Monday citing confidential defence ministry papers prepared to convince the budget committee of the need for urgent purchases.

Countries like Germany have rushed to send supplies of 155m artillery rounds used by howitzers to Ukraine in the wake of its invasion by Russia in February 2022, running down stocks for their own defence.

Germany’s military needs to build up an inventory of some 230,000 shells by 2031 to comply with NATO goals to have enough artillery to withstand 30 days of intensive combat, Der Spiegel wrote.

The defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The ministry aims to present the budget committee with nine contracts for the accelerated purchase of artillery and tank ammunition in coming months, Der Spiegel wrote.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Sarah Marsh; Editing by Christina Fincher)