Inflation in the United Kingdom rose to a five-month high as the aftershocks of the Iran war continued to ratchet up fuel prices, official figures showed Wednesday, an increase that will pressure the Bank of England to hike interest rates again over coming months.

The Office for National Statistics said rising prices at the pump and airfares were largely behind the increase in the U.K.'s consumer prices index to 3.1% in August from 2.9% the month before. The increase moved inflation further away from the Bank of England's 2% inflation target.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday proposed making Canada the European Union's first associate member, a striking overture as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs drive Ottawa closer to Europe.

Trump's tariffs and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have pushed Canada to seek closer economic and security ties with Europe. Roughly 70% of Canadian exports go to the United States, and Carney has called for a "unique alliance" with the EU as Canada seeks to reduce that dependence.

The European Union's top official proposed on Wednesday banning children under 13 across the 27-nation bloc from using social media sites and imposing limits for older teens on accessing the platforms.

The plan outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen adds to global efforts to protect young people using platforms such as Instagram and TikTok from online harm.

A Russian drone struck a passenger bus in southern Ukraine early Wednesday, killing five people and wounding at least seven. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack, the latest in a series of Russian strikes on civilian transportation, as an "atrocity."

The strike occurred in the Nikopol district of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, near the war's southern front line. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said all five were killed at the scene while the seven wounded were receiving medical care.

About 12.5 trillion tons (11.3 trillion metric tons) of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979, which is enough frozen water to stack ice 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep across the continental United States, according to a major scientific report.

A warming Earth is accelerating the melting of the planet's two major ice sheets, with five-sixths of the melt not coming from hotter air, but from warmer waters eating away at the ice sheets from below and the sides, with glaciers flowing into the oceans, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Scientific Data. That's bad news for future sea level rise, the study's authors said.

At least 20 people, including five children, died, and dozens remained missing on Wednesday after a Gaza apartment building collapsed from damage sustained in earlier Israeli strikes, the territory's civil defense agency said, giving an updated toll.

The bodies of "20 martyrs have been recovered from the rubble of a building that collapsed... Among the dead are five infants, while dozens of people remain trapped beneath the debris," said Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesperson for the civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority.

They lead party tickets, star in campaign videos and appear in televised debates. They are Russians who have fought in Ukraine, and they feature prominently in this week's parliamentary election.

Election officials say nearly 200 candidates have served in Ukraine, and the Kremlin touts them as part of Russia's "true elite" — its effort to show that veterans of the 4 1/2-year-old war will have an honored place in civilian life.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has canceled a trip to the U.N. General Assembly next week as he faces mounting pressure at home during a string of difficult state elections.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they couldn't publicly discuss a trip that hadn't been announced officially, said Wednesday that Merz won't travel to New York as originally planned because "his presence is required in Berlin." Merz had been expected to speak at the General Assembly next Wednesday.

Lionel Messi might have one last dance with Argentina after all.

Despite announcing his international retirement, the 39-year-old Inter Miami star was included Tuesday in Lionel Scaloni's 28-man Argentina squad ahead of three home friendlies.

The Trump administration is stripping tens of millions of dollars in U.S. military assistance from countries in Europe and the Middle East to support conservative-leaning governments in Central and South America.

The State Department on Tuesday notified Congress that it will reprogram $52 million in foreign military financing from Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq to Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.