The European Union's top officials will travel to Moldova's capital on Friday for a key bilateral summit to strengthen ties months before the EU candidate member holds a pivotal parliamentary election.

Moldova's pro-Western President Maia Sandu and Prime Minister Dorin Recean will host the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President António Costa in Chisinau. Talks will focus on EU membership, security and trade. The leaders are expected to issue a joint statement afterward.

A gas station exploded early on Friday in southeastern Rome, injuring at least 20 people, including eight police officers and a firefighter, local authorities and rescuers said.

The explosion was heard across the Italian capital shortly after 8 a.m., sending up a huge cloud of dark smoke and fire visible from several areas of the city.

Russia on Thursday became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban's government in Afghanistan since it seized power in 2021, after Moscow removed the group from its list of outlawed organizations.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it had received credentials from Afghanistan's newly appointed Ambassador Gul Hassan Hassan. The official recognition of the Afghan government will foster "productive bilateral cooperation," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin stressed in a call with U.S. President Donald Trump that the Iran conflicts and others in the Middle East should be solved diplomatically.

"From the Russian side, the importance of settling all disputed issues, disagreements and conflictual situations be solved exclusively by politico-diplomatic means was stressed," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the call.

Iran announced Thursday that it has reopened its airspace, including over Tehran, after closing it on June 13 due to the war with Israel, according to state media.

"Tehran's Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini international airports, as well as those in the north, east, west and south of the country, have been reopened and are ready to operate flights," the official IRNA news agency reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he had made no progress with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin towards a ceasefire in Ukraine after the two leaders spoke by phone on Thursday.

"No, I didn't make any progress with him at all," Trump told reporters when asked if he had moved closer towards a deal to end Russia's invasion, adding that he was "not happy" about the ongoing war.

Kyiv said on Friday that Russia had launched its largest overnight aerial attack on Ukraine over the more than three-year invasion.

A representative of Ukraine's air force Yuriy Ignat said the barrage of 550 drones and missiles was a record, adding "this is the largest number that the enemy has used in a single attack."

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin said they will speak by phone Thursday, their sixth publicly disclosed chat since Trump returned to the White House this year.

Trump said in a social media post the call will take place at 10 a.m. EDT. Neither leader offered any immediate details on the topic.

France said Thursday it would decide whether to reimpose sanctions against Iran depending on whether Tehran released two French detainees charged with spying for Israel.

"Freeing Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris is an absolute priority for us. We have always told our interlocutors from the Iranian regime that any decisions on sanctions will be conditional on resolving this issue," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

The Russian military said Thursday it had captured the village of Milove in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, opening a new front on their shared border.

"As a result of decisive actions, the village of Melovoye in the Kharkiv region has been liberated," Russia's defence ministry said, using the Russian spelling for the village.