Azerbaijan on Tuesday began what it called an "anti-terrorist operation" targeting Armenian military positions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and officials in that region said there was heavy artillery firing around its capital.

The Azerbaijani defense ministry announced the start of the operation hours after four soldiers and two civilians died in landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The player in the middle of the controversy that engulfed Spanish soccer after she was kissed on the lips by an official has accused the country's soccer federation of trying to intimidate the World Cup-winning players by picking them for the national team even though they asked not to be called up.

Jenni Hermoso, who said she did not consent to the kiss by former federation president Luis Rubiales during the World Cup awards ceremony last month, said in a statement early Tuesday that the federation's decision to call up nearly half of the 39 players who said they would not play for the national team as a protest was "irrefutable proof" that "nothing has changed."

Sydney experienced its first total fire ban in almost three years on Tuesday and several schools along the New South Wales state coast to the south were closed because of a heightened wildfire danger, caused by unusually hot and dry conditions across southeast Australia.

Authorities have forecast the most destructive wildfire season during the approaching Southern Hemisphere summer in Australia's populous southeast since the catastrophic Black Summer fires of 2019-20 that killed 33 people, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and razed 19 million hectares (47 million acres).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he trusts Russia as much he trusts the West.

Explaining his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogan said he had failed to get him to resume the Black Sea grain deal the Kremlin withdrew from in July but had elicited a pledge for Russia to supply 1 million tons of grain to Africa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington this week comes at a critical juncture for his alliance with the United States as Republican leaders in Congress diverge on how to send more military and humanitarian aid to the country.

President Joe Biden is seeking an additional $24 billion in security and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, in line with his promise to help the country for "as long as it takes" to oust Russia from its borders.

Leaders of a world fractured by war, climate change and persisting inequality gather under one roof Tuesday to hear the U.N. chief summon them to take united action on humanity's huge challenges – and to start delivering their own assessments on the most global of stages.

"People are looking to their leaders for a way out of this mess," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said ahead of the annual gathering of presidents and premiers, ministers and monarchs at the General Assembly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off a U.S. trip in California to talk to billionaire businessman Elon Musk about antisemitism on his social media platform X — while Musk asked him to address his judicial overhaul in Israel. The two also discussed artificial intelligence in a sparsely attended livestream event.

Netanyahu's high-profile visit to the San Francisco Bay Area comes at a time when Musk is facing accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on his social media platform, while Netanyahu is confronting political opposition at home and abroad. Protesters gathered early Monday outside the Fremont, California, factory where Tesla makes its cars.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Elon Musk to establish a factory in Turkey for his electric car company Tesla during a meeting in New York, Erdogan's office said.

Erdogan, who is in the U.S. to attend the U.N. General Assembly, also discussed potential cooperation between Musk's space exploration firm SpaceX and Turkey's space program, the Turkish president's office said.

Iran's president has denied his country had sent drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, even as the United States accuses Iran of not only providing the weapons but helping Russia build a plant to manufacture them.

"We are against the war in Ukraine," President Ebrahim Raisi said as he met with media executives on the sidelines of the world's premier global conference, the high-level leaders' meeting at the U.N. General Assembly.

Hundreds of soccer fans stormed into a hotel in Tehran on Monday, hoping for a glimpse of star player Cristiano Ronaldo after he arrived with his Saudi teammates ahead of a game.

Chanting "Ronaldo, Ronaldo," the fans pushed past police, filling the corridors and public spaces of the Espians Palace Hotel.