Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised to bring an end to raging international crises and restore American prestige on the world stage, saying he could "stop wars with a telephone call."

EU lawmakers on Thursday handed Ursula von der Leyen another five-year term as European Commission president during their first parliamentary session since June elections.

Von der Leyen won with the support of 401 MEPs in the 720-seat chamber -- comfortably over the 361-vote majority she needed to remain head of the EU's executive body. There were 284 who voted against in the secret ballot.

Leaders from across Europe gather at an English country mansion on Thursday for a summit clouded by worries about whether the United States would remain a reliable ally if Donald Trump secures a second presidency.

Newly elected U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is welcoming some 45 heads of government to discuss migration, energy security and the threat from Russia as he seeks to restore relations between the U.K. and its European Union neighbors, four years after their acrimonious divorce.

In a relative rarity for presidential elections, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have long records on foreign policy and clearly stated positions on many of the world's hot spots.

Trump's allies at the Republican National Convention are expected to argue that Biden has weakened America's standing abroad and permitted the outbreak of conflicts between Russia and Ukraine as well as the Israelis and Palestinians. Biden, a Democrat who ran four years ago on a message of shoring up America's foreign alliances and reversing Trump policies, argues that he has restored U.S. standing abroad.

A fire that broke out overnight at a residential building in a working-class neighborhood of the southern French city of Nice killed seven people, firefighters said early Thursday.

Rescuers were alerted at around 2:30 am (0030 GMT) to the blaze in Les Moulins, the cause of which is still unknown. In spite of the substantial resources deployed, "unfortunately seven people died during this fire", rescuers said.

Iran on Wednesday rejected what it called "malicious" accusations by U.S. media implicating it in a plot to kill former U.S. president Donald Trump.

President Emmanuel Macron will on Tuesday accept the resignation of the French government, but ask Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to head up a temporary caretaker administration, cabinet sources told AFP.

French politics have been in gridlock since this month's inconclusive snap election with parties in the National Assembly scrambling to put together a governing coalition.

Two days after surviving an attempted assassination, former President Donald Trump appeared triumphantly at the Republican National Convention's opening night with a bandage over his right ear, the latest compelling scene in a presidential campaign already defined by dramatic turns.

GOP delegates cheered wildly when Trump appeared onscreen backstage and then emerged in the arena, visibly emotional, as musician Lee Greenwood sang "God Bless the USA." That was hours after the convention had formally nominated the former president to head the Republican ticket in November against President Joe Biden.

Top officials of the European Union will boycott informal meetings hosted by Hungary while the country holds the EU's rotating presidency, after Hungary's pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held a series of rogue meetings with foreign leaders about Ukraine that angered his European partners.

The highly unusual decision to have the European Commission president and other top officials of the body boycott the meetings in Budapest was made "in light of recent developments marking the start of the Hungarian (EU) presidency," commission spokesperson Eric Mamer posted Monday on X.

The Kremlin on Tuesday gave a cautious reaction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's apparent invitation to a future peace summit, saying that Russia first needs to understand what Kyiv means before attending talks.

Zelensky said on Monday that Russia "should be" represented at a second summit on the Ukraine conflict, following high-level talks last month in Switzerland that Moscow did not attend and heavily criticized.