Indonesia shut a provincial airport and evacuated hundreds of people from the vicinity of the Ruang volcano after it belched explosive plumes of lava, rocks and ash for days, officials said on Thursday, declaring the highest alert on the situation.

Georgia’s parliament approved the first reading of a bill on “foreign agents” that the European Union said risked stifling freedoms and blocking the country’s path to membership.

Israel will make its own decisions about how to defend itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, as Western countries pleaded for restraint in responding to a volley of attacks from Iran.

As floods engulfed large parts of central Russia, residents of one village defied advice to flee their homes and started building a homemade dam.

Three Russian missiles slammed into the city centre of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, killing at least 17 people, wounding dozens more and damaging civilian buildings, officials said.

Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami alert after eruptions at Ruang Mountain sent ash thousands of feet high. Officials ordered more than 11,000 people to leave the area.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote Friday on a Palestinian request for full U.N. membership, said diplomats.

Two people have been found dead at a rural property in Waitākere, West Auckland.

Sweden’s parliament on Wednesday passed a law that will make it easier for people to change their legal gender and lower the age at which it is allowed to 16 years from 18 years, despite heavy criticism from within the government coalition.

Voters in the Solomon Islands have cast their ballots in a general election that was being closely watched by Australia, China and the United States for its potential impact on regional security.

Vote counting was set to begin in the Solomon Islands parliamentary election, the first since Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare struck a security pact with China in 2022 and drew the Pacific Islands nation closer to Beijing.

Israel will make its own decisions about how to defend itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, as Western countries pleaded for restraint in responding to a volley of attacks from Iran.