Wednesday

The Israeli military announces a "broad counterterrorism operation" in the northern Samaria area in the occupied West Bank. (DW)

Pope Leo XIV begins his first papal trip, first to İznik and Nicaea in Turkey, then to Bkerké, the Monastery of Saint Maron, and the Port of Beirut in Lebanon. The trip will include an ecumenical commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea and a mass in honor of the victims of the 2020 Beirut explosion. (AP) (Vatican News)

The International Monetary Fund announces a staff-level agreement with Ukraine on a proposed Extended Fund Facility worth more than US$8 billion, outlining fiscal and monetary policies intended to support macroeconomic stability, debt sustainability, and external financing amid the ongoing war with Russia. (AFP via CTV News)

A fire at a housing estate in Tai Po, Hong Kong, leaves at least 44 people dead and 45 more injured. (Reuters)

The death toll from the floods in southern Thailand increases to 33 people. (Reuters)

Cyprus and Lebanon sign a long-delayed maritime boundary agreement. (AP via ABC News)

The Dominican Republic permits the United States to use the Las Américas International Airport in Punta Caucedo, Santo Domingo, and the San Isidro Air Base to support Operation Southern Spear targeting alleged drug traffickers linked by the U.S. to Venezuelan authorities. (AFP via France 24)

U.S. president Donald Trump announces that South Africa will not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit in Doral, Florida, and that U.S. payments and subsidies to the country will cease, citing South Africa's refusal to transfer G20 hosting responsibilities to a U.S. embassy representative at the 2025 Johannesburg summit and criticizing its treatment of Afrikaners, among other reasons. (AFP via Arab News)

Two members of the National Guard are shot in Washington, D.C., United States. (AFP via France 24)

A Peruvian court sentences former president Martín Vizcarra to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes from construction companies while serving as governor of Moquegua between 2011 and 2014. (AFP via TRT Afrika)

Justice Geoffrey Venning of New Zealand's High Court sentences 45-year-old mother Hakyung Lee to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years after convicting Lee of murdering her two children in 2018. (DW)

The Tatmadaw grants amnesty to over 3,000 political prisoners, drops charges of over 5,500 others, and grants conditional release to 724 prisoners ahead of the general election in December. (AP)

Bissau-Guinean president Umaro Sissoco Embaló is detained following a coup d'état one day before provisional election results were expected to be released. (BBC News) (Jeune Afrique in French)

Nigerian president Bola Tinubu declares a nationwide security emergency and orders the recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers and the deployment of specialised units in response to recent killings and kidnappings. (AFP via TRT World)

The Italian parliament approves a bill to punish femicide with life in prison. (AP)

Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan wins the Chess World Cup, at the age of 19, becoming the youngest player to win the event. (FIDE)