Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Trump: U.S. will respond with 'great force' if Iran attacks interests

President Donald Trump warned on Monday Iran would be met with "great force" if it attacked U.S. interests in the Middle East, and government sources said Washington strongly suspects Shi'ite militias with ties to Tehran were behind a rocket attack in Baghdad's Green Zone. "I think Iran would be making a very big mistake if they did anything," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Monday evening for an event in Pennsylvania. "If they do something, it will be met with great force but we have no indication that they will." Venezuela's Maduro proposes early elections for opposition-run congress

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday proposed early elections for the National Assembly, which is headed by opposition leader Juan Guaido and is the sole body recognized as democratically legitimate by most Western nations. The opposition won a majority in the National Assembly in 2015 and the next congressional elections are currently scheduled for late 2020. Maduro did not give an exact new date, and he has previously said he would shift them earlier, without following through. UK's Hammond: Backing a 'no deal' Brexit means deliberately harming economy

British finance minister Philip Hammond will on Tuesday warn that those pushing for Britain to leave the European Union without a deal would be doing deliberate damage to the British economy. Nearly three years after the United Kingdom voted 52% to 48% in a referendum to leave the EU, it remains unclear how, when or even if it will leave the European club it joined in 1973. It is currently due to leave on Oct. 31, with or without a deal. Austria's Kurz hopes to sidestep scandal to stay in power

Even though he brought the far right into power, Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz hopes voters will see him as having put his country first by sticking by his coalition partners despite their history of scandals, and then ditching them. It just might work if the public believes his disavowal of his former allies in the Freedom Party (FPO) and the maths go his way in September, when Austrians are expected to vote in a snap election brought about by the latest FPO transgression. U.S. warship sails in disputed South China Sea amid trade tensions

The U.S. military said one of its warships sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China in the South China Sea on Sunday, angering Beijing at a time of tense ties between the world's two biggest economies. The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and Taiwan. Marawi's ruins a reminder of Islamic State's devastating reach

It had only been a week since Mohammad Ali Acampong finished renovating his house when bombs and bullets struck Marawi City. Two years ago, pro-Islamic State militants took over in a bid to carve out their own "Wilayah", or province, forcing nearly 100,000 people to flee in what became the Philippine military's toughest and longest conflict since World War Two. As U.S.-Iran tension simmers, rocket fired near Iraq's U.S. Embassy

A rocket was fired into the Iraqi capital Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions, on Sunday night, falling near the U.S. Embassy but causing no casualties, the Iraqi military said. The attack came two weeks after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iraqi leaders during a surprise visit to Baghdad that if they failed to keep in check Iran-backed militias, which are expanding their power in Iraq and now form part of its security apparatus, the United States would respond with force. Talks on Sudan's political transition fail to produce deal for second day

Talks between Sudan's ruling Transitional Military Council and an alliance of protesters and opposition groups failed for the second day in a row to produce a breakthrough on the country's political transition, the council said early on Tuesday. Street protests and a sit-in outside the defense ministry compound in Khartoum have not ended even after the army ousted and arrested former President Omar al-Bashir on April 11. Guatemalan teenage boy dies in U.S. Border Patrol custody

A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy died on Monday in U.S. Border Patrol custody in Texas, U.S. officials said, making him the fifth Guatemalan minor to die after being apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border since December. The boy, Carlos Hernandez, was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents on May 13 after crossing the border illegally near Hidalgo, Texas, with a group of 70 others, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol. High fives, selfies and a snap election as Zelenskiy takes power in Ukraine

Television comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy took the oath of office as Ukraine's new president on Monday, promising that as hard as he had worked in the past to make Ukrainians laugh, he would now work to keep them from crying. As his first act, he dismissed the parliament still dominated by loyalists of his defeated predecessor, setting up an election in two months in which his new party has a chance to win its first seats.