Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani took his midnight oath of office on a centuries-old Quran, marking the first time a mayor of New York City uses Islam's holy text to be sworn in and underscoring a series of historic firsts for the city.

The 34-year-old Democrat became mayor in a long-closed subway station beneath City Hall, the first Muslim, first South Asian and first African-born person to hold that position.

Widening demonstrations sparked by Iran's ailing economy spread Thursday into the Islamic Republic's rural provinces, with at least seven people being killed in the first fatalities reported among security forces and protesters, authorities said.

The deaths may mark the start of a heavier-handed response by Iran's theocracy over the demonstrations, which have slowed in the capital, Tehran, but expanded elsewhere. The fatalities, two on Wednesday and five on Thursday, occurred in four cities, largely home to Iran's Lur ethnic group.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday said his country's answer to an attack would be harsh, which appeared to be in response to a warning by U.S. President Donald Trump over reconstruction of Iran's nuclear program.

"Answer of Islamic Republic of Iran to any cruel aggression will be harsh and discouraging," Pezeshkian said on the social media platform X.

President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. has "hit" a dock facility along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela, but the U.S. offered few details.

Trump initially seemed to confirm a strike in what appeared to be an impromptu radio interview Friday, and when questioned Monday by reporters about "an explosion in Venezuela," he said the U.S. struck a facility where boats accused of carrying drugs "load up."

Shares opened mixed in Europe on Tuesday after slipping in Asia as some regional markets wrapped up trading for the year.

Crude oil prices edged higher and gold and silver resumed their ascent. U.S. futures were flat.

The funeral for Brigitte Bardot will be held next week in Saint-Tropez, the glamorous French Riviera resort she helped make famous and where she lived for more than a half-century, local authorities said.

The cinema star and animal rights activist died Sunday at the age of 91 at her home in southern France.

European leaders were due to hold talks Tuesday on U.S.-led peace efforts to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine, amid a flare-up in tensions between Moscow and Kyiv over Russian claims, denied by Ukraine, of a mass drone attack on a lakeside residence used by President Vladimir Putin.

The virtual European meeting was expected to gather leaders who attended talks in Berlin earlier this month, according to Polish government spokesman Adam Szłapka, although it was not clear who would be taking part.

Hamas on Monday confirmed that its longtime spokesman was killed following an Israeli strike in August in war-torn Gaza, the first time the Palestinian militant group publicly acknowledged the death of one of its more prominent figures.

The confirmation comes months after Israel said on Aug. 31 that its forces had killed the militant group's spokesman Hudhayfa al‑Kahlout, nicknamed "Abu Obeida," in an airstrike on Gaza. Hamas didn't say how he was killed or when.

China flexes blockade capabilities near Taiwan on second day of military drills

China's People's Liberation Army staged a second day of large-scale military drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, unleashing a live-fire show of force as part of what it called "Justice Mission 2025" to demonstrate its ability to deter any external armed support for the self-ruled island that it has long insisted is part of its sovereign territory.

Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen's port city of Mukalla on Tuesday over what it described as a shipment of weapons for a separatist force there that arrived from the United Arab Emirates. The kingdom later directly linked the UAE to the separatists' recent advances in Yemen and warned Abu Dhabi its actions were "extremely dangerous."

The attack signals a new escalation in tensions between the kingdom and the separatist forces of the Southern Transitional Council, which is backed by the Emirates.