As the referee's whistle signalled the start of the match, two five-year-old Iranian girls faced off, delivering a closely watched karate bout to a captivated audience -- a sign of the changing attitude toward martial arts in the Islamic Republic in recent years.

The two young opponents, clad in crisp white karategi with coloured belts and protective headgear, circled each other on the tatami, the floor covering used for practising Japanese martial arts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Republicans are working on legislation that will impose sanctions on any country doing business with Russia, and he said Iran may get added to that list.

"As you know, I suggested it, so any country that does business with Russia will be very severely sanctioned," Trump told reporters. "They may add Iran to that," he added.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)

The UN Security Council voted Monday in favor of a US-drafted resolution bolstering Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan that includes the deployment of an international force and a path to a future Palestinian state.

There were 13 votes in favor of the text, which US President Trump claimed would lead to "further Peace all over the World," with only Russia and China abstaining -- but no vetoes.

By Christine Chen and Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that Australia would not co-host the COP31 climate summit with Turkey amid an ongoing stalemate between the two countries.

Turkey has proposed jointly leading next year's U.N. climate summit with Australia and the discussions on the hosting standoff remain unresolved, Turkish diplomatic sources told Reuters on Sunday.

By Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will overhaul its approach to human rights laws to make it easier to deport migrants who arrive in the country illegally as part of a major shake-up of asylum policy to be set out on Monday.

Interior minister Shabana Mahmood will outline changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights will be interpreted by courts, the government said.

"These reforms will block endless appeals, stop last minute claims and scale up removals of those with no right to be here," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey has proposed jointly leading next year's U.N. climate summit with Australia, though the two sides have not yet reached an agreement and the discussions on the hosting standoff remain unresolved, Turkish diplomatic sources said.

Australia and Turkey both submitted bids in 2022 to host COP31 and neither has withdrawn, leading to an attention-sapping impasse that must be overcome at this year's COP30 meeting currently taking place in Belem, Brazil.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state after protests by far-right coalition allies over a U.S.-backed statement indicating support for a pathway to Palestinian independence.

Netanyahu spoke two days after Israel's key ally the United States and many Muslim-majority nations endorsed a draft U.N. resolution backing President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, saying the process offered a route to Palestinian statehood.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Washington's current approach toward Tehran does not indicate any readiness for "equal and fair negotiations", Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday, after U.S. President Donald Trump hinted last week at potential discussions.

Following Israel's attack on Iran in June, which was joined by U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, attempts at renewing dialogue on Tehran's nuclear programme have failed.

By Catarina Demony and Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain said it would make refugee status temporary and the wait for permanent settlement would be quadrupled to 20 years under the country's most sweeping overhaul of policy on asylum seekers in modern times.

The Labour government has been hardening its immigration policies, above all on illegal small-boat crossings from France, in efforts to stem the soaring popularity of the populist Reform UK party, which has driven the immigration agenda.

(Reuters) -Ukraine is working to resume the exchange of prisoners with Russia, hoping for the release of 1,200 Ukrainians, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Security Council chief said.

"We are ... counting on the resumption of exchanges," Zelenskiy said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday. "Many meetings, negotiations and calls are now devoted to this."

His security chief, Rustem Umerov, said on Saturday that he had held consultations in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, with the support of Kyiv's partners, on resuming the process of exchanges.