Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Denmark to invest $5.5 billion in the navy

The Danish defence ministry said on Thursday the Nordic nation will invest 40 billion Danish crowns ($5.47 billion) in its navy. ($1 = 7.3158 Danish crowns)

Ukraine says fighting ‘deadlocked’ ahead of visit by U.N. chief

Ukrainian forces said on Thursday they had beaten back a Russian attack in the southern region of Kherson, while the death toll from Russian shelling of Kharkiv city in Ukraine’s northeast climbed as the nearly six-month war grinds on without let-up. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan later on Thursday in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Unification Church members accuse Japanese media of bias over Abe killing

Thousands of Unification Church members gathered in Seoul on Thursday to protest what they call discriminatory and unfair Japanese media coverage of their church since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination. The suspect in Abe’s July 8 shooting, Tetsuya Yamagami, bore a grudge against the church, alleging it bankrupted his mother and blaming Abe for promoting it, according to his social media posts and news reports.

Death toll from Kabul mosque blast reaches 21

A blast that tore through a Kabul mosque during evening prayers on Wednesday killed 21 people, Kabul police said on Thursday, as the United Nations expressed concern over a growing number of civilian casualties from explosions. Police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said that another 33 people had been injured in the blast, and witnesses told Reuters shattered the windows of buildings near the mosque in a northern Kabul neighborhood.

Malaysia ex-PM Najib says fair trial at risk in final 1MDB appeal

Former Malaysia premier Najib Razak said on Thursday his right to a fair trial was at risk in his appeal against a 12-year jail sentence linked to the 1MDB scandal after the country’s top court denied a request by his lawyers to withdraw.

Najib, 69, who was convicted in July 2020, replaced his legal team just three weeks before his final appeal at the Federal Court began on Monday.

U.S., Taiwan to start formal trade talks under new initiative

The United States and Taiwan have agreed to start trade talks under a new initiative to reach agreements with “economically meaningful outcomes”, with a Taiwan official saying China’s “economic coercion” would also be discussed. Washington and Taipei unveiled the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade in June, just days after the Biden administration excluded the Chinese-claimed island from its Asia-focused economic plan designed to counter China’s growing influence.

Russia says Ukraine planning ‘provocation’ at nuclear plant; Kyiv dismisses the accusation

Russia said on Thursday there was a risk of a man-made disaster at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and accused Kyiv and the West of planning “provocation” there on Friday during a visit to Ukraine by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. A Ukrainian official dismissed what he depicted as a cynical assertion by Moscow and said Russian forces should leave the plant they captured soon after invading Ukraine nearly six months ago, demine it and remove any munitions stored there.

Russian Jews head for Israel as Kremlin targets emigration group

In the hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Ilya Fomintsev, a 43-year-old oncologist and director of a medical charity, took to the streets of Moscow to protest. He was arrested and sentenced to 20 days’ detention. Fearing for his future, like many other opponents of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Fomintsev decided to leave the country.

For some Gaza children, another round of violence reopens trauma

When Israeli missiles started landing in Gaza in early August, shattering glass and collapsing buildings, Joumana Abdu put on headphones, covered her eyes with a blindfold and stretched on the couch. The 8-year-old Palestinian girl said she came up with this ritual to escape the bang of the blasts, the second round of steady violence she had experienced in 15 months.

The literary institutions where Salman Rushdie has attacked ramps up security

Chautauqua Institution, the bucolic New York retreat where Salman Rushdie was attacked last week, has added new security measures, including requiring photo identification and passing through metal detectors prior to entering its venues. Rushdie, 75, was set to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom at the western New York venue last week when a man rushed the stage and stabbed the Indian-born writer. Rushdie has lived with a bounty on his head since his novel “The Satanic Verses” was published in 1988 and prompted Iran’s then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to issue a fatwa urging Muslims to kill him.

(With inputs from agencies.)