Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete.

The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank on Thursday launched two Pacific islands projects under a first-of-its-kind cofinancing model that aims to streamline processes and speed up delivery.

The U.S. Supreme Court revived on Thursday a redrawn Texas electoral map designed to add more Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, boosting President Donald Trump’s quest for his party to keep control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.

When Susan Pinu was pregnant with her daughter, she was far from her home in Solomon Islands and found herself wandering an Australian town looking for help.

U.S. lawmakers split along party lines after being briefed on Thursday on a strike against a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, with Democrats saying they were horrified by a video showing survivors in distress being killed, while a Republican lawmaker defended the strike as legal.

Remains that militants in Gaza handed to Israel were those of Thai agricultural worker Sudthisak Rinthalak, Israeli and Thai officials said Thursday. The confirmation brought the first phase of Gaza’s tenuous 8-week-old ceasefire a step closer to completion, with one more hostage’s remains still to be returned.

U.S. President Donald Trump gathered the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to sign a peace deal in Washington on Thursday even as fighting continued in their war-scarred region.

President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on Thursday that Russia would take full control of Ukraine’s Donbas region by force unless Ukrainian forces withdraw, something Kyiv has flatly rejected.

The French government criticized the decision by an Algerian court to uphold a seven-year jail sentence for French journalist Christophe Gleizes despite its efforts to convince Algerian authorities to change the verdict.

A Pentagon investigation has faulted U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for using Signal on his personal device to transmit sensitive information about planned strikes in Yemen, saying it could have endangered U.S. troops if intercepted, two people familiar with the document said.

Brazil’s state of Para has delayed the deadline for the introduction of tracking devices in its cattle herds, a blow to environmental efforts to introduce a regional policy that advocates say is key in preventing deforestation.