Britain and France reiterated their determination Tuesday that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine ends in failure, with the U.K. foreign minister saying that Ukraine's allies must better leverage their economic might to vastly outmatch Moscow's war machine.

The renewed insistence from U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron and French counterpart Catherine Colonna that Russia can't be rewarded for its aggression comes as wartime aid from Ukraine's biggest single military backer — the United States — is faltering.

Pope Francis formally approved letting Catholic priests bless same-sex couples, the Vatican announced Monday, a radical shift in policy that aimed at making the church more inclusive while maintaining its strict ban on gay marriage.

But while the Vatican statement was heralded by some as a step toward breaking down discrimination in the Catholic Church, some LGBTQ+ advocates warned it underscored the church's idea that gay couples remain inferior to heterosexual partnerships.

Germany's highest court on Tuesday ordered the 2021 national election to be partially repeated in Berlin because of severe glitches at many polling stations in the capital.

The rerun is much too limited to endanger the majority of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unpopular three-party government and appears unlikely to have any other significant effects on the composition of parliament's lower house, the Bundestag.

Ratification of Sweden's NATO membership by Turkey's parliament hinges on the U.S. Congress' approval of Turkey's request to purchase F-16 fighter jets, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, calling on the two legislatures to act "simultaneously."

In comments reported on Tuesday, Erdogan also said Canada and other NATO allies must lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey.

A quasi-independent review board is recommending that Facebook parent company Meta overturn two decisions it made this fall to remove posts "informing the world about human suffering on both sides" of the Israel-Hamas war.

In both cases, Meta ended up reinstating the posts — one showing Palestinian casualties and the other, an Israeli hostage — on its own, although it added warning screens to both due to violent content. This means the company isn't obligated to do anything about the board's decision.

Israeli forces raided one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza's north and bombarded the south with airstrikes that killed at least 28 Palestinians, pressing ahead with their offensive Tuesday with renewed backing from the United States, despite rising international alarm.

The air and ground war, launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, displaced some 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets across the region.

An overnight earthquake killed at least 118 people in a cold and mountainous region in northwestern China, provincial officials said Tuesday, in the nation's deadliest quake in 10 years.

Emergency authorities in Gansu province issued an appeal for 300 additional workers to comb through collapsed buildings and for other search and rescue operations. Officials in neighboring Qinghai reported 20 people missing in a landslide, according to Chinese state-owned media.

The U.N. Security Council delayed until Tuesday morning a vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for a halt to hostilities in Gaza to allow for urgently needed aid deliveries to a massive number of civilians as members intensified negotiations to try to avoid another veto by the United States.

The council said Monday's 5 p.m. EST vote would not take place, and diplomats said negotiations were taking place to get the United States, Israel's closest ally, to abstain or vote "yes" on the resolution.

The Western powers in the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran have accused Tehran of developing and testing ballistic missiles, transferring hundreds of drones to Russia, and enriching uranium to an unprecedented 60% level for a country without a nuclear weapons program — all in violation of a U.N. resolution endorsing the deal.

Iran and its ally, Russia, dismissed the charges by Britain, France and Germany, strongly supported by the United States, which pulled out of the agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018.

The head of the CIA jetted to Europe for talks with Israeli and Qatari officials Monday, sounding out the potential for a deal on a new cease-fire and the release of hostages in Gaza as the United States defense secretary spoke to Israeli military leaders about scaling back major combat operations against Hamas.

Still, there was no sign that a shift in the war was imminent after more than two months of devastating bombardment and fighting. Fierce battles raged in northern Gaza, where residents said rescue workers were searching for the dead and the living under buildings flattened by Israeli strikes.