China's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it has taken footballstar Kylian Mbappé's apology "seriously" for comments considered to be disrespectful of Mao Zedong, the founding leader of Communist China, as the fallout over the issue continues.

Mbappé faced a backlash Tuesday over comments he made in an online interview, losing brand deals with at least three different Chinese companies. Beverage maker Dongpeng, dairy giant Mengniu and cheese maker Milkground said in similarly worded statements that they were ending agreements with the star forward, each saying they oppose "any words and actions that hurt national sentiment."

The United Nations is set to vote Wednesday on a resolution condemning the decades-long U.S. economic embargo on Cuba as the Trump administration intensifies its campaign to undermine Cuba's socialist government, including by threatening military intervention.

The annual exercise aimed at calling out the U.S. government's "maximum pressure policy" has been put before the U.N. General Assembly for the past 34 years, and each time the resolution has received overwhelming support from the 193 member states. Last year, the vote was 165-7, with 12 abstentions.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s broad assertions about Arab contributions to humanity's scientific and literary discoveries at a Republican campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, have drawn criticism just days before midterm elections.

"There's 500 million Arabs in the world and yet they don't produce science," Kennedy said on the campaign trail Monday. "They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

Cyclone Arnab dumped heavy rain across India 's eastern Andhra Pradesh state and caused extensive damage in some areas Wednesday after tens of thousands of people were evacuated from vulnerable coastal areas.

Prakhar Jain, head of the state's disaster management authority, said the cyclone had weakened slightly before landfall earlier in the day but brought heavy to very heavy rainfall to several coastal districts, triggering widespread disruption in affected areas. No casualties were reported and damage was being assessed.

Iranian-backed militias carried out a precision strike last month, hitting the pumping stations of Saudi Arabia's most important oil pipeline. Days later, another attack hit a Saudi military air base, damaging an Italian fighter jet inside a hangar.

Crucial to the strikes' success was what was happening in the skies overhead: For days beforehand, a constellation of Russian spy satellites converged over the pipeline and the air base to gather intelligence.

Anxious Israelis watched as election results took shape on Wednesday after voters delivered a rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's far-right government, with the highest turnout in over a quarter-century. Exit polls suggested no clear winner and that weeks of negotiating could lie ahead.

Arab-led factions appear to have made a historic showing, but it's not clear if opponents of the government, who exit polls suggested have a solid majority in the next parliament, are willing to form a coalition with them. Issues around the Palestinians and their descendants remain incredibly sensitive in Israel.

Serbian police said on Wednesday that an unidentified assailant attacked a guard with knives outside the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade and was killed just after midnight.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that police were treating the incident as a "terrorist attack" and had raised the terror threat to the highest level and stepped up police presence at key locations.

A Swiss woman being treated for Ebola in Nigeria was medically evacuated to Switzerland with her husband Monday, officials said, as Nigerian authorities continued monitoring 52 people who had been in contact with her.

Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Pate said the woman, the country's first case in the current outbreak, left the capital, Abuja, early Monday with his approval. Her condition had improved significantly, and she was stable, conscious and able to communicate, he said.

Israelis entered the final 24 hours of an intense election season on Monday, as reports circulated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have clashed with the Israeli military over initiating a possible escalation with Iran immediately before the vote.

Tensions flared over reports that Netanyahu and his military chief of staff disagreed over an instruction by the prime minister to carry out an "action" that the army worried could reignite the conflict with Iran. Netanyahu's office denied the report, first published by Israel's Channel 12, as "fake news."

French President Emmanuel Macron said the government would announce "concrete measures" on Monday to address school students' demands for more resources and better learning conditions, after weeks of class boycotts, blockades and demonstrations that have grown into nationwide unrest.

"I have asked the government to address the legitimate demands at the root of this protest movement," Macron said during a visit to the southern port city of Marseille, where protesters briefly stormed City Hall during rioting and looting on Oct. 17.