Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “I met with Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi to discuss the health situation in Iran and how WHO can support meeting the health needs across the country, following the impacts on health and damage sustained during recent hostilities in the country. Peace is the best medicine. #WHA” The World Health Organization (WHO) is urgently addressing the severe health crisis in Iran caused by regional conflict, which has strained the country’s healthcare system. Primary concerns include attacks on health facilities, critical shortages of medicines, large-scale civilian displacement, and radiological or industrial chemical risks.

Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. While many people across the U.S. lost their jobs over social media comments about Kirk’s death, Larry Bushart’s case stood out as a rare instance in which such online speech led to criminal prosecution. The 61-year-old retired police officer spent 37 days behind bars before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October. During his time in jail, Bushart lost his postretirement job and...

Myanmar’s military-backed government says it has regained control of two towns near the country’s borders with India and Thailand, marking a significant advance in the civil war as it seeks to reassert control of regions long held by resistance forces. A report in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper on Thursday said Tonzang, near the border with India, was captured by the army on Wednesday after 10 days of operations to retake it. The paper published photos of soldiers who recaptured the town in front of the township’s administrative office and other departments. That report came a day after Myanma Alinn...

A lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of students and community organizations in Massachusetts argues the state is illegally maintaining schools that are racially segregated, concentrating Black and Latino students in high-poverty districts with fewer opportunities. The lawsuit challenges the state’s practice of assigning students to schools based solely on where they live, which can lead to patterns of housing segregation being replicated in school systems. The case is the latest example of efforts to address segregation and funding inequities through state-level litigation. Even before the Trump administration began taking steps to release districts in the Deep South from court-ordered desegregation...

Over the past months, Ukrainian drones have crashed into the chimney of a power plant in Estonia, hit empty fuel tanks in Latvia and been shot down by Romanian fighter jets stationed in Lithuania. For the first time in a NATO and European Union capital, Lithuanians were pictured sheltering in underground car parks in Vilnius on Wednesday, as authorities warned of unidentified drone activity in neighboring Belarus. No one has died or been injured recently, but the increasing airspace incursions have prompted some Baltic ministers to chastise Ukraine for the violations, which also led to the collapse of the Latvian...

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed two decrees on Wednesday that add to the pressure on big tech companies by increasing their liability for illegal content shared by its users and paving the way for investigations by a government body into their responses to such cases. The moves toughen the environment in Brazil for giants like Google, Meta and TikTok, who have long tried to dissociate themselves with crimes online committed by users. The first decree makes key adaptations to government regulations to align them with a decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court making big tech companies liable if...

Nine migrants deported from the United States landed in Sierra Leone on Wednesday, the West African country said, in the latest example of the Trump administration’s widely criticized deals with African and Latin American nations to take third-country deportees. Five migrants are from Ghana, two from Guinea, one from Senegal and one from Nigeria, the ministry of information said. The deals have raised questions about respect for the migrants’ rights. The ministry’s statement said the new arrivals “have been checked into their hosting facilities, are comfortable and receiving the necessary support.” It said 24 deportees were initially expected but didn’t...

Three people are dead and more than a dozen first responders had to be quarantined and assessed Wednesday for possible exposure to an unidentified substance after being called to a suspected drug overdose at a rural New Mexico home, authorities said. Four people initially were found unresponsive inside the Mountainair home east of Albuquerque, New Mexico State Police said. Three died, while the forth was being treated at an Albuquerque hospital, police said. Their names weren’t released. First responders who arrived at the home were exposed to the substance and began experiencing symptoms, including nausea and dizziness, authorities said. Antonette...

In Beijing, Presidents Vladimir Putin & Xi Jinping viewed a photo exhibition “China-Russia Everlasting Friendship: A Model of Major-Country Relations.”,  prepared by the ТАСС and China Xinhua It follows the development of Russia-China relations & titled “Unbreakable Friendship Between Great Peoples, Strategic Partnership Between Great Powers”. The leaders recalled with pleasure the moments of friendly exchanges and cooperation between China and Russia in recent years. They both noted that the great cause of China-Russia friendship is in line with the prevailing trend of history and of the times. It is unbreakable, and will continue to steadily advance forward and write...