Russian President Vladimir Putin has been sworn into office at a lavish Kremlin ceremony for a record-breaking fifth term.

Putin, 71, who has ruled Russia since the turn of the century, got a fresh six-year mandate in March after winning presidential elections.

He had no opposition.

In his remarks at the event, Putin said, “We are a united and great people. Together we will overcome all obstacles, we will bring all our plans to fruition, and together we will win.”

“We will pass through this difficult, decisive period with dignity and become even stronger,” Putin said at his inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin, attended by an AFP journalist.

“We are a united and great nation,” Putin said in an upbeat speech, to applause from an audience of around 2,500 people including officials and military top brass.

“Together we will overcome all obstacles, achieve everything we have planned, and together we will win,” he said.

He said after being sworn into office that he viewed the presidency as a “huge honour, responsibility and sacred duty”.

The Russian leader vowed to ensure “sustained and stable development, unity and independence of the country”.

Putin thanked soldiers taking part in what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, more than two years after it began on February 24, 2022, at a ceremony attended by some of those fighting.

“We are looking forward confidently,” Putin stressed in his speech, which was aired on national television.

Evoking the country’s “thousand-year history” as he spoke in the Kremlin’s gilded St Andrew’s Hall, the president said that present-day Russians owed a debt to previous generations who achieved “such triumphs that inspire us today”.

He said Russians shared a “firm conviction that we ourselves alone will determine the fate of Russia for the sake of present and future generations”.

Russia is “not refusing dialogue with western states” and is ready to talk about “questions of security and strategic stability”, Putin said, “but only on equal terms, respecting the interests of each other”.

The Israeli government says it has decided to shut down Al Jazeera, a Qatari-owned TV station and news outlet, in the Jewish country.

In a tweet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the decision was taken after a unanimous vote by the government.

Netanyahu described Al Jazeera as an incitement channel and thanked Shlomo Karhi, minister of communications, for swinging into action.

Earlier, police seized Al Jazeera’s broadcasting equipment from its Jerusalem offices, and pulled the Qatari news channel off air.

The decision to shut the news outlet comes weeks after a law passed by the Knesset allowed the temporary closure of foreign media outlets deemed to be harming national security.

The law allows Netanyahu and his security cabinet to shut Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel for 45 days, a period that can be renewed.

“The government approved and I immediately signed the orders against Al Jazeera. Our orders will go into effect immediately,” Karhi said.

“Too much time has passed and too many unnecessary legal hurdles for us to finally be able to stop Al Jazeera’s oiled incitement machine that harms the security of the country.

“For months, I did everything and will continue to do everything so that they can no longer operate from Israel.”

Karhi said he ordered the seizure of the station’s broadcasting equipment “used to deliver the channel’s content”, including editing and routing devices, cameras, microphones, servers and laptops, as well as wireless transmission tools and some mobile phones.

Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of bias and collaboration with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.

The Qatar-based network has repeatedly rejected the accusations.

Reacting to the development in a statement, Al Jazeera condemned the Israeli government’s decision to close its operations in Israel as a “criminal act” and warned that the country’s suppression of the free press “stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law”.

Press freedom groups have also condemned Israel’s decision to shut down the Qatar-based network especially as Doha has been at the forefront of mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza.

At least 19 people have been confirmed dead after a section of a highway collapsed in southern China’s Guangdong province early Wednesday.

Xinhua, state media, reported that the accident caused 18 vehicles to fall off and involved 49 people.

About 30 people are receiving treatment in the hospital and there are no life-threatening injuries at the moment, the report added.

Although the cause of the collapse was not divulged, the road surface, which is about 17.9 metres long and covers some 184.3 square metres, was said to have given way after Guangdong experienced extreme weather events in recent weeks, from heavy rain to flooding and a deadly tornado.

Witnesses told local media that they heard a loud noise and saw a hole open up several metres wide behind them, after driving past the section of the road before it collapsed.

Video and photos showed smoke and fire rising from a deep, dark pit into which the cars appeared to have fallen.

The provincial government set up an accident rescue of over 500 people, including public security, emergency and fire protection officers, and officials from the health, transportation, and mine sectors.