Iran's government seems to be welcoming some recent decisions by the United States — even though they happen to come from a man Iranian operatives have allegedly been plotting to assassinate.

President Donald Trump's moves to freeze spending on foreign aid and overhaul, maybe even end, the U.S. Agency for International Development have been lauded in Iranian state media.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran "cannot have a Nuclear Weapon", a day after he signed an order reinstating a "maximum pressure" policy against Tehran over allegations that it was trying to develop such weapons.

"I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon," he said in a post on his Truth Social platform, adding: "I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper."

The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's statement that he was ready for direct talks with Russian counterpart Vladmir Putin to end fighting as "empty words".

"So far this cannot be seen as anything but empty words," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, after Zelensky said in an interview that he would agree to sit at a negotiating table with Putin.

Jonathan Zou, a second-year student at the University of Michigan, was among the thousands of students who joined pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses nationwide this past year. Although the campus protests have subsided, the repercussions for students like Zou remain.

Since his arrest by university police last Oct. 7 after using a megaphone during a pro-Palestinian march, Zou has been banned from all University of Michigan campuses, except for attending class or seeking medical care.

The head of France's far-right National Rally party said Tuesday he doesn't support a no-confidence motion filed against the government, making it more likely that the prime minister will remain in office and a 2025 budget will be adopted.

A no-confidence vote is scheduled Wednesday in the National Assembly and needs at least half the 577 votes to pass. Hard-left France Unbowed, Communist and Green lawmakers are expected to vote in favor but don't have the numbers on their own to bring down the centrist government.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will cut all funding to South Africa over what he called a human rights violation, a move that reflects Elon Musk's repeated and false claims over the years that authorities in his country of birth are anti-white and even encouraging the killing of white people.

Trump said on Sunday that "terrible things are happening in South Africa. The leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things" without providing specifics. He said "they're taking away land, they're confiscating land, and actually they're doing things that are perhaps far worse than that."

U.S. and Philippine fighter aircraft staged a joint patrol and training Tuesday over a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese fighter jets fired flares last year to drive away a Philippine aircraft, Philippine officials said.

The joint patrol and air-intercept drills over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines were the first by the longtime treaty allies since U.S. President Donald Trump took office again.

Elon Musk is rapidly consolidating control over large swaths of the federal government with President Donald Trump 's blessing, sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and dismantling a leading source of humanitarian assistance.

The speed and scope of his work has been nothing short of stunning. In a little more than two weeks since Trump took office, the world's richest man has created an alternative power structure inside the federal government for the purpose of cutting spending and pushing out employees. None of this is happening with congressional approval, inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.

Moscow's renewed attacks on Ukraine's electricity infrastructure this winter have heightened scrutiny over the Ukrainian Energy Ministry's failure to protect the country's most critical energy facilities near nuclear power sites.

Despite more than a year of warnings that the sites were vulnerable to potential Russian attacks, the Energy Ministry failed to act swiftly, current and former Ukrainian officials in Kyiv told The Associated Press.

The United Nations on Monday warned that Russian forces have been killing more captured Ukrainian soldiers over recent months, echoing growing allegations from officials in Kyiv.

Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of committing war crimes, including killing prisoners of war, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.