Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Spain's Sanchez reshuffles cabinet after transport minister quits over train crashes

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday his deputy, Carlos Cuerpo, would provisionally run the Transport Ministry after Oscar Puente's resignation over two deadly high-speed train crashes this year. Puente's move six days after this year's second traumatic rail accident has left the ruling Socialists fighting an election campaign without one of their most ​combative, but also polarising, voices.

Montenegro could sign accession treaty with EU in June 2027, European Commission says

The European Union could conclude accession negotiations with Montenegro by the end of this year and could sign an accession treaty with the country as soon as June 2027, ​the European Commission said on Wednesday. “For the first time since 2011, when the EU closed accession negotiations with Croatia, the EU is in a position to soon close accession negotiations with another ‌candidate country, Montenegro,” the EU’s executive ​said in its annual enlargement policy report.

Dozens dead and missing after Russian strike on Ukrainian aid centre, officials say

The death toll from a Russian bombing of an aid distribution point in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday has risen to 37, with dozens missing, officials said, in one of the deadliest strikes on civilians this year. Rescuers were still searching for survivors in the rubble of the former school in the village of Komyshuvakha, the acting head of the Regional Military Administration, Mykhailo Semikin, said on Wednesday.

Chinese court hears COVID defamation case against US state of Missouri

A Chinese court has started hearing a defamation case filed by local authorities and scientific institutions against the US state of Missouri and several of its current and former attorneys general, over claims that they fabricated and disseminated false information related to the coronavirus pandemic. According to an official notice published on Tuesday, the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court, in central Hubei province, ‌formally accepted the case, which was jointly brought by the Wuhan municipal government, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Beijing's Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Trump's midterm rebuke gives trading partners room to resist

A backlash against President Donald Trump's Republican Party over rising living costs in the midterm elections could embolden countries around the world to resist his combative trade policies, which have raised prices for American consumers. Democrats captured majorities in both the Senate and House on Tuesday, as US voters delivered a stinging rebuke for Trump's policies, specifically tariffs and the Iran war, which they blame for persistent inflation.

Democrats take US Congress in sweeping midterm repudiation of Trump

Democrats seized control of both the Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday, scoring sweeping victories in Republican strongholds for the first time in generations as tens of millions of voters delivered a scathing rebuke to President Donald Trump. Voters in conservative bastions who had propelled the president to his second term in office just two years ago swung dramatically toward Democrats, fueled by deep frustration over the unpopular war with Iran, anxiety over the high cost of living and anger at Trump's stewardship of the country.

South Africans vote as anger over failing services threatens ANC

South Africans queued from early on Wednesday to vote in municipal elections, with anger over corruption, crime and failing public services ‌threatening to inflict fresh losses on the African National Congress. The party of Nelson Mandela fell below 50% support for the first time in municipal elections in 2021 and could drop below 40% this time, according to opinion polls.

Pope Leo readies to visit a Latin America where Catholicism is on the decline

Pope Leo begins his first trip to Latin America as pontiff on Friday, embarking on an 11-day journey across a region that remains the world's largest Catholic stronghold but where Catholic identity is steadily shrinking even as belief in God remains strong. Coming weeks after the 71-year-old pontiff's lung cancer surgery, the ‌ambitious itinerary from November 6-17 remains unchanged, the Vatican said. It is one of the most demanding overseas tours by a Catholic leader in decades. The trip takes him some 31,000 km (19,260 miles) from secular Uruguay to Argentina, homeland of his predecessor Pope Francis, before heading to Peru, where he spent years as a missionary and bishop, eventually becoming a citizen.

Netanyahu rivals seize on Democrats' sweep of US Congress, seeking his ouster

Benjamin Netanyahu's political rivals seized on Democrats' capture of the US Congress as proof that he had squandered generations of bipartisan American support for Israel, as they seek a chance to form a government without him. Democrats won majorities in both the Senate and House in Tuesday's midterm election, in a scathing rebuke to President Donald Trump fuelled in part by deep frustration over the unpopular US-Israeli war on Iran.

Russia hits power stations in Ukraine's regions of Kyiv, Zhytomyr

Russia has hit two power stations in Ukraine's regions of Kyiv and Zhytomyr, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram on Wednesday, keeping up nearly daily strikes on its neighbour's energy facilities amid falling temperatures. The strikes, which also targeted a cargo vessel at sea near Odesa, follow Tuesday's bombardments with missiles and drones that knocked out power to swathes of Ukraine, a week before US-brokered peace talks were set to resume.

US carries out 'defensive' strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island, officials say

The US carried out strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a US official said on Monday. The strikes, earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal, appeared to be limited and were not a resumption ⁠of major combat operations, the official said, ​speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Elon Musk's business empire braces for Democratic wave as Texas flips blue

As Republicans suffered a landslide defeat and Texas elected its first Democratic governor ⁠in more than three decades, one of the biggest losers of the US midterms was not on the ballot: billionaire Elon Musk. The world's richest man spent nearly half a billion dollars to back Republican candidates and keep Texas red - a state home to his automaker Tesla, rocket-to-AI company SpaceX and a planned chipmaking venture between the two.

Iranian officials gloat as US voters deal blow to Trump

Iran's government savoured the stinging rebuke delivered to Donald Trump in the midterm elections, declaring voters had rejected the war launched by the US president even as Tehran remained on high alert for the possibility of renewed strikes.

"Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message," Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator, ⁠posted on X, adding that Washington should not ignore public opinion by attacking his country again.

Ukraine needs to accelerate reforms to meet its EU accession goal, bloc’s executive says

Ukraine would need to speed up reforms if Kyiv wants to meet its own European Union accession negotiation goal, the European Commission said in a report on Wednesday. “The Ukrainian government has signalled its objective to close accession negotiations by the end of 2028,” the EU’s executive body said in a report on enlargement policy.

Top takeaways from the US midterm elections

Democrats took control of Congress in Tuesday's US midterm elections, making extraordinary gains deep in Republican territory with voters delivering a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump and his agenda. Here are some takeaways.

From Iran ​to trade: how the US midterms impact the rest of the world

The US Democrats' "blue wave" of midterm election victories is already causing ripples across the rest of the world, where trade partners, strategic allies and enemies all see implications in the result. IRAN AND ISRAEL

Cruise ship leaves Cambodia after forcing hundreds of passengers off

After disembarking more than 200 passengers who had paid tens of thousands of dollars to live on board for years, the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship departed Cambodia early on Wednesday. Last week, the vessel's owner, Florida-based Villa Vie Residences, suspended operations ⁠and forced passengers off the ship at the port town of Sihanoukville, saying fuel price increases from the Iran war had made operations prohibitively expensive.

Ethiopia expels Sudanese diplomats after fresh allegations of support for RSF

Ethiopia has ordered six Sudanese diplomats to leave the country, a senior Ethiopian official said on Wednesday, marking a further deterioration in relations between the two sides over allegations each is supporting the other's enemies. Sudan accuses Ethiopia of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, while Ethiopia accuses Sudan of backing rebels in its northern Tigray region.

China seeks extradition of five Uyghurs from Thailand

Thailand will allow five Uyghur men to challenge a Chinese extradition request in court before approving their deportation, a Thai government spokesman said, with human rights groups warning they face the risk of torture if sent back. The men were among 300 ⁠Uyghurs, a ​persecuted minority numbering around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, who fled to the Southeast Asian country in 2014, where they were detained for illegal entry.

'A mandate for change': Democrats remake Texas politics in election rout

Texas Democrats, shut out of every statewide office for more than three decades, have toppled Republicans from the top of the ballot to the bottom, remaking the political landscape of the nation’s largest conservative state in a single earth-shattering night. While James Talarico’s victory in the US Senate race and Gina Hinojosa’s defeat of three-term Governor Greg Abbott stole the headlines, Democratic candidates also triumphed in a series of lower-profile races on Tuesday, giving them the power to reshape the state's economic and political future.

Rich countries fall far short on climate adaptation funding, UN says

Rich countries are falling well short of the $305 billion needed each year to help developing nations adapt to climate change, even as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, a UN report said on Wednesday. Funding from developed countries rose by $1 billion to $28.2 billion in 2024, but remained a fraction of what is required to help poorer nations cope with worsening heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods, the UN's 2026 Adaptation Gap Report found.

Bangladesh agrees new garment pay scale from December amid protests

Bangladesh's newly ⁠formed wage board agreed on Wednesday to implement a revised pay structure for garment workers from December, as protests over wages entered their fifth day and disrupted production in the country's key apparel sector. The board did not discuss the size of any wage increase and will hold further meetings to determine the new pay structure, Babul Akter, the workers' representative on the board, said after its first meeting.

Hungary opens communist-era informer files in belated reckoning with Cold War past

Hungary released tens of thousands of Communist-era secret police files in an online public database on Wednesday, opening a window ⁠onto the vast informer network used to spy on citizens during decades of one-party rule. The historic move more than 36 years after the collapse of communism is part of centre-right ⁠Prime Minister Peter Magyar's pledge to make the records public and allow Hungarians to come to terms with their totalitarian past.

Iran's Khamenei says US hostility will persist regardless of party in power

Washington's hostility towards Tehran will not change through partisan shifts or any concessions to the US, and those who believe otherwise are “greatly mistaken”, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Wednesday, following the Republican Party's defeats in the US midterm elections. Khamenei warned that Iran's response to any renewed US aggression would be on a much greater scale, adding that Tehran's destruction of US bases in the region and its management of the Strait of Hormuz had been part of a campaign against US hegemony.

Prominent Indian free speech groups say police ordered X accounts removed

Two of India's most prominent digital rights and free speech groups said police in New Delhi have asked X to remove their accounts, accusing them of defaming a Hindu nationalist group linked ‌to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Free-speech activists and opposition politicians, including from India's Congress party, say the move is a ‌way to curb dissent in the world's most populous nation.

Ukraine's anti-graft police target senior officials in major fraud probe

Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday they believed senior security and law enforcement officials were involved in covering up a major fraud scheme at the centre of an expanding new probe. Top employees of Ukraine's SBU ​security service, the National Police and the Prosecutor General's Office had taken bribes to shield a call centre scamming unwitting victims, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said.