World

The United States and Iran are both reviewing proposals from mediators to end their war and remain committed to the talks, Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday, November 3, Reuters reported. Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran on Monday night to discuss a version of a draft U.S.-Iran agreement worked on over the past eight days; an official briefed on the talks said feedback from Washington and Tehran was expected within 36 hours.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters the two countries were still far from a deal, that Tehran would not accept what he called Washington's excessive demands, and that nuclear talks could begin only after Iran's conditions were met. Overnight, U.S. forces carried out what a U.S. official described as defensive strikes on Iran's Qeshm island, in the Strait of Hormuz, targeting surface-to-air missiles used against U.S. aircraft and ships.

President Trump has said the United States would not launch new attacks on Iran before Tuesday's midterm elections and that talks had been productive, while not ruling out further military action afterward, according to Reuters. The war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28; a ceasefire in April and an agreement in June both broke down.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense detected 49 sorties by Chinese military aircraft around the island in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. Tuesday, November 3, Taiwan time, the Taipei Times reported, a sharp increase over recent days, when the ministry reported 19 aircraft and seven navy ships on November 2. China has not announced any drills. Su Tzu-yun of Taiwan's government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research described the activity as a 'quiet exercise' meant to keep up pressure without formally announcing drills.

Taiwan's Air Force began its annual Sky Dragon exercises on Monday, testing F-16V, Mirage 2000-5 and Indigenous Defense Fighter pilots through Friday, and troops on Kinmen, the Taiwan-held island less than 10 kilometers off China's coast, held live-fire drills, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. Taiwan's defense ministry said in October that it was watching for possible large-scale Chinese exercises as the People's Liberation Army's November-to-December peak season approached; China last staged a large exercise encircling Taiwan in August 2022, after a visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory; Taiwan's government rejects that claim.

Severe Cyclonic Storm Murasu crossed the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Narsapur, close to Ongole in Prakasam district, between 3:30 and 5:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday, November 3, the India Meteorological Department said, according to Business Standard. Sustained winds were 100 to 110 kilometers an hour (about 60 to 70 mph), gusting to 120, and the department had warned of a storm surge of 1 to 1.5 meters (3 to 5 feet) above high tide in low-lying coastal areas. The storm was weakening over land.

It is India's second cyclone in about a week, after Cyclone Arnab, Al Jazeera reports. More than 180,000 people were evacuated in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha before landfall, including about 160,000 in five Odisha districts where flash floods from Arnab had already caused widespread damage, according to Indian media reports. India's National Disaster Response Force sent additional teams to Andhra Pradesh, and schools were closed in several districts. The UN- and EU-backed Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System issued a red alert, its highest level, for the storm's wind exposure.

Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh were under rain alerts. India proposed the name Murasu, a Tamil word for a traditional war drum; it is the first Tamil name given to a north Indian Ocean cyclone. Official casualty and damage figures had not been released.

Bulgaria's acting president, Iliana Iotova, won the country's presidential runoff on Sunday, November 1, becoming its first elected female head of state, according to near-final results from the Central Election Commission reported by Reuters. With 99.95 percent of ballots counted, she had about 57.6 percent of the vote, TVP World reports.

Her opponent was Andrey Gyurov, a banker and former caretaker prime minister backed by the opposition. The first round on October 25 drew record-low turnout of about 23 percent, and no candidate won a majority. Bulgaria's presidency is a largely ceremonial post, though the president appoints caretaker governments when parliament can't form one.

Tens of thousands of young people demonstrated in 34 German cities on Saturday, October 31, in protests organized by a group called Gen Z regelt, demanding better education, lower living costs and an end to compulsory military service. The organizers said about 120,000 people took part; police said the main protests were very peaceful, The Times of Israel reports.

In Frankfurt, masked groups looted shops and clashed with police, and police used water cannon in Hamburg and Cologne after officers were targeted with fireworks, stones and bottles. Several police officers were injured, police said. The organizers distanced themselves from the violence. The protests follow similar youth-led demonstrations elsewhere in Europe this fall.

Christine Lagarde will step down as president of the European Central Bank on February 7, 2027, nearly nine months before her eight-year term was due to end on October 31, 2027, the bank said on Thursday, October 29. Lagarde informed the bank's Governing Council and European Council President António Costa, who said the process to choose her successor would begin immediately. The ECB gave no reason for her departure. 'It has been a great pride and a huge privilege to serve this institution,' Lagarde wrote on X.

Lagarde, 70, has led the ECB since November 2019 and previously headed the International Monetary Fund and served as France's finance minister. The timing lets European Union leaders choose her successor before France's presidential election next spring, Reuters and AFP reported. Former Dutch and Spanish central bank governors Klaas Knot and Pablo Hernández de Cos are seen as leading contenders, according to Reuters; no candidate has officially been named. Later the same day, the ECB kept its key interest rates unchanged, after raising them in June and September.

The yield on France's 10-year government bond rose above 5 percent on Wednesday, October 21, for the first time since 2002, Euronews reported, a sign of investors' concern about French government finances and higher interest rates in Europe. Higher government borrowing costs can feed through to mortgages and business loans.

A flash flood caused by the collapse of a high-altitude glacier swept through the Nepal-Tibet border region on Wednesday, August 26, burying villages in water, ice, rock and mud. By Friday, August 28, the death toll had climbed to at least 469 in Nepal, with at least three people killed in Tibet and nearly 1,500 still missing, according to Business Standard and AFP; the toll rose quickly as rescuers reached affected areas, including towns along the Trishuli River in Nuwakot district.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the flood was set off by a glacial collapse, which also registered as seismic activity, and China said the collapse of a glacier in Nepal may have triggered the disaster. The debris left behind formed a new lake held back by an unstable natural dam, and authorities in Kathmandu and Beijing issued fresh flood warnings for communities downstream.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday, August 26, that Iran and Oman had agreed to share revenue from the Strait of Hormuz and define their maritime areas, while talks continue on reopening the waterway, AFP reported. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said military vessels would not be allowed to pass under the proposed agreement, the Associated Press reported. The United States said it had finished clearing mines from the strait, and an oil tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile off Oman the day before, Democracy Now reported. The United States has not agreed to an Iran-Oman arrangement.

A Russian ballistic missile strike killed 10 civilians and injured eight in the village of Pechenihy in Ukraine's Kharkiv region on Tuesday, August 18, Ukrainian authorities said, the Associated Press and Reuters reported; several homes were destroyed. Overnight, Ukraine launched hundreds of drones toward Moscow and surrounding areas, according to Moscow's mayor, Reuters reported.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the United Kingdom would continue to support Ukraine militarily, after Russia warned Britain it would face consequences for allowing Ukraine to use British-made drones against targets deep inside Russia, the BBC reported.

The 60-day memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, signed June 18 as a temporary ceasefire meant to allow talks on ending the war, expired Monday, August 17, without an agreement, and the White House said it would not seek to extend it, Democracy Now and Just Security report.

President Trump told reporters Iran was unlikely to accept the deal he wants and called on Tehran to surrender. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the country would shift to a fully offensive military posture; spokesman Esmail Baghaei said negotiations never began because the United States had violated the agreement within weeks of signing it. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Trump in a call to keep pursuing talks and offered Turkey's support, Reuters reported.

The next day, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center reported that a vessel was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, damaging its engine room and killing a crew member, Reuters and Al Jazeera reported.

Qatari mediators said progress had been made in efforts to end the war between the United States and Iran, Reuters reported Tuesday, August 4. Iran and Oman were reported to be close to an arrangement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz with inbound ships using a channel controlled by Iran and outbound ships one controlled by Oman, with a service fee split between them, according to Iranian officials cited by Democracy Now; the United States had not agreed to any such plan. Separately, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, the Minoan Pioneer, was reported missing after being struck by an unknown projectile northeast of Oman, Seatrade Maritime News and Al Arabiya reported.

The death toll from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu on Tuesday, July 28, rose to 34, the prefectural government said Friday, July 31, according to the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. More than 80 people were injured. The quake struck at about 4:27 p.m. local time near the city of Uki and reached the top level, 7, on Japan's seismic intensity scale in Uki and Hikawa.

Nearly half of the deaths were linked to two sites: an explosion that partly collapsed the second floor of the Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima, and structural damage at a Nippon Paper Industries mill. The quake knocked out power to about 40,000 homes, halted rail service and triggered tsunami alerts along parts of Kyushu's coast. More than 10,000 people were staying in evacuation centers as of Thursday, the prefecture said. A major earthquake in Kumamoto in 2016 killed 275 people.

U.S. Central Command said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched multiple ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the Middle East in what it called a surprise attack on Tuesday, July 28, and that all were intercepted, Politico reported. Separately, a Hamas delegation traveled to Cairo to resume talks on the next phase of its ceasefire with Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Andy Burnham became prime minister of the United Kingdom on Monday, July 20, after Keir Starmer resigned and King Charles III invited Burnham to form a government, NPR and ABC News report. Both men are from the center-left Labour Party. Burnham was confirmed as Labour leader at a special party conference on Friday, July 17, as the only candidate, with nominations from 379 of the party's 403 members of Parliament.

Starmer, who led Labour to a large majority in the 2024 general election, announced in June that he would step down after the party lost more than 1,000 local council seats in May's elections. In his final remarks outside Downing Street, he said serving as prime minister had been the privilege of his life and pledged his full support to Burnham.

Burnham, 56, served 16 years as a member of Parliament, including in the cabinets of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, before becoming mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017. He is the seventh British prime minister since the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Under the parliamentary system, the next general election is not expected for about three years.

U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces had redirected seven commercial vessels and disabled one since reimposing the naval blockade of Iranian ports on July 14, Middle East Eye reported. Greek shipping company Dynacom Tankers said two of its oil tankers, the Kavomaleas and the Acheloos, were struck by unknown projectiles off the coast of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported. The national average price of gasoline in the U.S. topped $4 a gallon, the highest since mid-June, AFP reported.

The U.S. military reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports on Tuesday, July 14, after attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Associated Press and France 24. The earlier blockade had ended on June 17. U.S. Central Command carried out another round of strikes aimed at capabilities used to attack commercial shipping, including coastal defense systems and missile and drone sites.

Iran fired projectiles at two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates in the strait, killing two mariners and injuring 14, Xinhua reported. President Trump also dropped a proposal to charge a 20 percent fee on cargo ships transiting the strait, AP and the BBC reported. Talks between the two countries on ending the conflict had not produced an agreement.

The United States and Iran exchanged strikes overnight into Thursday, July 9, for a second straight night, hours after President Trump said he believed their ceasefire was over. Both governments accused the other of violating the terms of the deal they signed in mid-June.

U.S. Central Command said its forces struck about 90 targets in Iran, including missile and drone storage sites, with explosions reported in cities along the Strait of Hormuz, Just Security's daily summary reports, citing the Associated Press and The New York Times. Iran's military said it responded with drone and missile strikes on U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar; Kuwait said its air defenses intercepted missile and drone attacks, and air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain. Iran's health ministry said U.S. strikes over the two days had killed at least 14 people and wounded 78.

A U.S. official said technical talks between the two countries would continue. The renewed fighting came as the International Monetary Fund warned that the war was weighing on the global economy.