Iran has warned that U.S. bases, facilities and assets would be "legitimate targets" if the United States follows through on its military threats and attacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran must make a "meaningful deal" in negotiations with Washington in the next 10 days or else "bad things happen", as he deployed warships, fighter jets and other military hardware to the region.

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called on Giorgia Meloni to stop "commenting on what is happening in other people's countries," after the Italian prime minister expressed shock at the fatal beating of a far-right activist in France.

"Let everyone stay in their own lane," Macron said in New Delhi, on the sidelines of an official visit to India. On Wednesday, Meloni said that the killing of Quentin Deranque was "a wound for all of Europe."

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former British prince who was stripped of his royal titles because of his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

While Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with his friendship with Epstein, concerns about Mountbatten-Windsor's links to the late financier have dogged the royal family for more than a decade.

Russia called for restraint on Thursday amid growing tensions over a possible U.S. attack on Iran, and as Moscow and Tehran staged naval drills that the Kremlin said were scheduled and should not be a cause for alarm.

The United States has massively built up its forces in the Middle East and President Donald Trump has warned Iran to make a deal with Washington, hinting at military action.

President Donald Trump, shifting his tone yet again, warned Britain on Wednesday not to "give away" a key Indian Ocean base, saying it would be vital if the United States attacks Iran.

Trump, who is considering strikes on the Islamic republic, lashed out hours after the State Department offered the latest U.S. support to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's deal to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the formal unveiling of a huge multiple rocket launcher that can fire nuclear warheads at the South, state media said Thursday.

At a ceremony Wednesday, Kim gave a speech touting the new 600mm multiple launch rocket system as unique in the world and said it is "appropriate for a special attack, that is, for accomplishing a strategic mission," the KCNA news agency said, using a common euphemism for nuclear use.

U.S. Southern Command chief Francis Donovan met Wednesday with Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez and her top ministers, according to the Venezuelan government.

The U.S. General met with Rodriguez as well as Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, a government account posted on X, adding that the two countries "agreed to work on forming a bilateral cooperation agenda in order to combat drug trafficking, terrorism, and migration."

President Donald Trump will gather Thursday with representatives from more than two dozen countries that have joined his Board of Peace — and several that have opted not to — for an inaugural meeting that will focus on reconstruction and building an international stabilization force for a war-battered Gaza, where a shaky ceasefire deal persists.

Trump announced ahead of the meeting that board members have pledged $5 billion for reconstruction, a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war. Members are expected to unveil commitments of thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory.

Russian officials said on Thursday their forces had destroyed 113 Ukrainian drones overnight, some of them having targeted an oil refinery in the northwest that resulted in a fire in a storage tank.

The sides finished two days of U.S.-brokered talks in Geneva on Wednesday, trying to find a settlement to four years of war in Ukraine.