Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is testifying before U.S. House lawmakers in New York on Thursday as part of a congressional investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, starting off two days of depositions that will also include former President Bill Clinton.

The closed-door depositions in the Clintons' hometown of Chappaqua, a typically quiet hamlet north of New York City, come after months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. It will be the first time that a former president has been forced to testify before Congress.

Iran and the United States were holding another round of indirect talks in Geneva on Thursday to try to reach a deal on Tehran's nuclear program and potentially avert another war as the U.S. gathers a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the Middle East.

U.S. President Donald Trump wants a deal to constrain Iran's nuclear program, and he sees an opportunity while the country is struggling at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests. Iran also hopes to avert war, but maintains it has the right to enrich uranium and does not want to discuss other issues, like its long-range missile program or support for armed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Russia launched a barrage of 420 drones and 39 missiles at Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, as U.S. and Ukrainian envoys held more talks in Geneva on ending the war that is now in its fifth year.

The bombardment, which included 11 ballistic missiles, targeted critical infrastructure and residential areas across eight regions of Ukraine, Zelensky said. Dozens of people, including children, were injured, officials said, though authorities did not immediately publish a confirmed total.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that he was hopeful ahead of the third round of talks with the United States, adding that they could help end the standoff with Washington.

"We see a favorable outlook for the negotiations," said Pezeshkian in a speech.

Facing tough odds in an upcoming election, Hungary's pro-Russian prime minister is trying to convince voters that the greatest threat to the country is not economic stagnation — the focus of his top opponent — but neighboring Ukraine.

Viktor Orbán is running an aggressive media campaign replete with disinformation whose central message is that Hungarians should refuse to align with the rest of Europe in supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion. That path, he argues, risks bankrupting the country and getting its youth killed on the front lines.

Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump's pressure tactics ahead of critical talks in Geneva over Tehran's nuclear program, alternating between calling his remarks "big lies" to saying negotiations may yield an agreement through "honorable diplomacy."

The remarks by two Iranian officials ahead of Thursday's talks come as America has assembled its biggest deployment of aircraft and warships to the Middle East in decades, part of Trump's efforts to get a deal while Iran struggles at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests last month.

A Ukrainian delegation is set to meet Thursday with American envoys in the run-up to another round of trilateral talks with Russia, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary, is due to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Zelensky told reporters in a media chat Wednesday.

Japan's government said Wednesday that a Japanese national has been detained in Tehran since January and demanded the Iranian authorities release them swiftly.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki, asked about foreign media reports on the case, confirmed only that the Japanese citizen was taken into custody on Jan. 20 but gave no further details, citing privacy issues.

A Ukrainian drone attack on a factory in Russia's western Smolensk region killed four people and injured 10 others, the region's governor said Wednesday.

"Four employees tragically died while performing their professional duties. Ten were injured," Smolensk region governor Vasily Anokhin said in a video published on his Telegram account.

The U.S. ambassador to Paris called the foreign minister and had "amicable" talks, the embassy said Tuesday, as Washington sought to calm a diplomatic spat over the killing of a far-right activist in France.

Ambassador Charles Kushner and Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot "spoke today in a frank and amicable call," a U.S. Embassy spokesperson said in a statement.