Israel and the United States were increasingly isolated as they faced global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, including a non-binding vote expected to pass at the United Nations later on Tuesday. Israel has pressed ahead with an offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months.

The war ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and minors, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million having fled their homes.

A missile strikes Norwegian-flagged tanker off Yemen in an apparent expansion of rebel attacks

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

World shares mostly gained on Monday at the start of a week that includes vital U.S. inflation data and the Federal Reserve's final rate decision of the year.

Germany's DAX was virtually unchanged, at 16,757.43, and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.2% to 7,537.72. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.4% at 7,526.38.

Thousands of protesters are expected to gather in Brussels on Tuesday to protest what they perceive as new austerity measures as the 27 European Union countries discuss ways to overhaul rules on government spending.

Finance ministers from the bloc have been negotiating for months a reform of the EU's rules limiting debt and deficits for member states, known as the Stability and Growth Pact, which would curtail the options of nations seeking to spend their way out of a crisis and potentially force them into austerity. The rulebook, which has often proved difficult to enforce and has served as a source of tension, was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic but should be reactivated next year.

Dozens of attacks on U.S. military facilities by Iran-backed factions in Iraq over the past two months have forced the government in Baghdad to perform a balancing act that is becoming more difficult by the day.

A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday marked a further escalation as Iraqi officials scramble to contain the ripple effects of the Israel-Hamas war.

A century-old territorial dispute deepened by the discovery of oil is boiling over between neighbors Guyana and Venezuela. Steeped in patriotism, the Venezuelan government is seizing on the fight to boost support ahead of a presidential election among a population fed up with a decadelong crisis that has pushed many into poverty.

Venezuelans on Sunday approved a referendum to claim sovereignty over Essequibo, a mineral-rich territory that accounts for two-thirds of Guyana and lies near big offshore oil deposits. Military confrontation appears unlikely for now, but several countries have echoed Guyana's concerns over an annexation by its neighbor to the west.

Sometime in the early 2010s, Yekaterina Duntsova's eldest daughter drew a picture of her debating Russian President Vladimir Putin live on prime-time TV.

A decade on, the little-known journalist and mom-of-three from a small town in western Russia recalls the drawing as a joke about her civic activism — but says it also carried a "message about the future."

When U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Antarctica in November to highlight a planet in peril to set the stage for global climate talks in Dubai, he went to see an accelerating ice melt, not penguins.

But penguins were all around as Guterres and his entourage toured glaciers and visited Chile's Eduardo Frei Air Force Base on King George Island.

Pressure mounted on Hungary on Monday not to veto the opening of European Union membership talks and the supply of economic aid to war-torn Ukraine at a pivotal EU summit this week, after Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded that the issue be struck from the agenda.

With tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance blocked by Senate Republicans in the United States, Ukraine is desperate to ensure longer-term financial and military assistance as fighting in its almost 2-year war with Russia bogs down.

President Joe Biden goes into next year's election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it.

Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success as it tries to highlight economic progress.