Reuters World News Summary

The Senate voted 52 to 47 on a procedural measure to advance the war powers resolution, as a handful of Trump's fellow Republicans voted with every Democrat in favor of moving ahead toward a final vote on the matter. Greenland should hold talks with the US without Denmark, opposition leader says Greenland should hold direct talks with the U.S. government without Denmark, a Greenlandic opposition leader told Reuters, as the Arctic island weighs how to respond to President Donald Trump's renewed push ​to bring it under U.S. control.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Treasury's Bessent says Iran facing precarious moment, economy in trouble

Iran's economy is facing high inflation and other challenges, partly due to U.S. sanctions, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday, underscoring Washington's concerns about Tehran cracking down violently on anti-regime protests. "The Iranian economy is on the ropes," Bessent told the Economic Club of Minnesota, underscoring President Donald Trump's warning to Tehran to avoid harming protesters.

Somalia, US relations hit low point as Washington pauses aid to government

Relations between Somalia and the U.S. hit a low point after Washington said it would pause further assistance that benefits the government in Mogadishu amid a dispute over the demolition of a World Food Programme warehouse. The U.S. State Department's under secretary of foreign assistance ‌said in an X post on Wednesday that Somali government officials had destroyed a U.S.-funded WFP warehouse and illegally seized donor-funded food aid for vulnerable Somalis.

Trump advisers meet with Denmark, Greenland envoys, Danish official says

Aides to U.S. President Donald Trump met at the White House on Thursday with envoys from Denmark and Greenland, a Danish government official said as Trump pushes to bring the island territory under U.S. control. Denmark's Ambassador Jesper Moller Sorensen and Jacob Isbosethsen, Greenland's chief representative to Washington, met with officials at the White House National Security Council, the official said on condition of anonymity.

'If it expires, it expires,' Trump tells NYT about US-Russia nuclear treaty

U.S. President Donald Trump indicated that he would allow the last U.S.-Russia strategic arms control treaty to expire without accepting an offer from ⁠Moscow to voluntarily extend its caps on deployments of the world's most powerful nuclear weapons, according to remarks released on Thursday. "If it expires, it expires," Trump said of the 2010 New START accord in an interview he gave to the New York Times on Wednesday. "We'll just do a better agreement."

US Senate votes to curb military action in Venezuela, Trump says oversight could last years

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to advance a resolution that would bar President Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization, even as Trump said U.S. oversight of the troubled nation could last years. The Senate voted 52 to 47 on a procedural measure to advance the war powers resolution, as a handful of Trump's fellow Republicans voted with every Democrat in favor of moving ahead toward a final vote on the matter.

Greenland should hold talks with the US without Denmark, opposition leader says

Greenland should hold direct talks with the U.S. government without Denmark, a Greenlandic opposition leader told Reuters, as the Arctic island weighs how to respond to President Donald Trump's renewed push ​to bring it under U.S. control. Trump has recently stepped up threats to take over Greenland, reviving an idea he floated in 2019 during his first term in office, although he faces strong opposition to the idea in Washington, including from within his own party.

UN chief Guterres regrets US decision to withdraw from some UN entities

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regrets a U.S. decision to withdraw from dozens of U.N. entities, his spokesperson said on Thursday, stressing that the U.S. funding for a "large number" ‍of those bodies was mandatory.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would withdraw from dozens of international and U.N. entities, including a key climate treaty and a U.N. body that promotes gender equality and women's empowerment, because they "operate contrary to U.S. national interests."

Trump says Venezuela does not give China a Taiwan precedent, but 'it's up to' Xi

U.S. President Donald Trump said "it's up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the status quo, according to an interview the New York Times published on Thursday. "He (Xi) considers it to be a part of China, and that's up to him what he's going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday.

Nationwide internet blackout reported in Iran as protests persist

A nationwide internet blackout was reported in Iran on Thursday, internet monitoring group NetBlocks said, as protests over economic hardships continued around the country. No further information on the internet outage was immediately available.

US judge dismisses lawsuit by Palestinian Americans trapped in Gaza

A federal judge dismissed on Thursday a lawsuit demanding the U.S. government conduct emergency rescues of Palestinian Americans and family members who are trapped in Gaza and trying to escape hardships caused by the war between Israel and Hamas. Chief Judge Virginia Kendall of the U.S. District Court ⁠in Chicago said she lacked ‌the power and tools to evaluate "delicate foreign policy decisions" belonging to the government's Executive Branch, while expressing sympathy with "the impossible positions in ⁠which many of the plaintiffs have found themselves."

US oversight of Venezuela may last years, Trump tells NYT

President Donald Trump said the U.S. will maintain oversight of Venezuela "much longer" than a year and his own judgment is the only limit to his global power, according to a New York Times interview published on Thursday. When asked by the Times if Washington's oversight of Venezuela would be three months, six months, a year or longer, Trump said: "I would say much longer."

US Senate advances measure curbing Trump's Venezuela war powers

The U.S. Senate advanced a resolution on Thursday that would bar President Donald Trump from further military action against Venezuela without ‍congressional authorization, a rare rebuke of the Republican leader. The vote on a procedural measure to advance the war powers resolution was 52 to 47, as five of Trump's Republicans voted with every Democrat in favor of moving ahead. One Republican senator did not vote.

Brazil's Justice Minister Lewandowski resigns

Brazil's Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski resigned from his role, a letter released by the ministry showed on Thursday. Lewandowski attributed his decision to personal and family matters, according to the letter, which was addressed to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A former Supreme Court justice, Lewandowski served in Lula's cabinet for nearly ​two years.

Russian attack hits infrastructure target in western Lviv region, governor says

A Russian attack struck an infrastructure target in western Ukraine's Lviv region, officials in the region said early on Friday. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi and regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi, writing on Telegram, gave no details on the strike and did not say what weapons had been deployed.

Israel bars some aid workers from Gaza as groups face suspension

Israel said on Thursday it had barred entry to Gaza of foreign ⁠medical and humanitarian staff whose organisations were ordered to cease operations unless they register employee details with Israeli authorities and meet other new rules. Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organisations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.

Saudi coalition says separatist leader fled Yemen with UAE help, advances to Aden

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates had spirited a separatist leader out of the country by boat in a dramatic twist to a rift between the Gulf powers, ⁠as Saudi-backed forces advanced to the port of Aden after losing ground there. The escape of Aidarous al-Zubaidi, head of a UAE-backed southern separatist group, could exacerbate tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, global oil heavyweights and both close allies of the United States.

Trump withdrawal from bedrock UN climate treaty raises legal questions

The Trump administration's decision to withdraw the United States from the foundational U.N. climate treaty, which the U.S. Senate unanimously adopted more than 30 years ago, may be illegal, according to some legal experts who say that Congress would need to approve its exit. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would withdraw from dozens of international and U.N. entities, including the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as the scientific Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that "operate contrary to U.S. national interests" of focusing on oil, gas and mining development.

One dead in floods in Albania as rain and snow grip Balkans

A man was found drowned on Thursday in the Albanian city of Durres and emergency teams worked around ⁠the clock to evacuate dozens of people from flooded houses hit by heavy rainfall. The Western Balkan countries have seen disruption from snow and other winter weather since Sunday, with the closure of roads and railway lines, power cuts and drinking water affected.

Exclusive-Trump administration mulls payments to sway Greenlanders to join US

U.S. officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States, according to four sources familiar ⁠with the matter. While the exact dollar figure and logistics of any payment are unclear, U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 ‌per person, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Russian strikes plunge Ukraine's industrial southeast into blackouts

Ukrainian officials raced to restore power on Thursday after Russian drone attacks plunged two southeastern regions into near-total blackout overnight, strikes that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said were aimed at "breaking" his country. Zelenskiy said Russia was intent on using wintry weather as a weapon rather than allowing U.S.-led diplomacy to work towards a resolution of nearly four years of conflict.

Russian drone attack on Kyiv triggers fires, injures four, officials say

Russian drones attacked targets in Kyiv early on Friday, triggering fires in several districts and injuring at least four people, officials said. Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital's military administration, wrote on Telegram that four people had been hurt in the strikes, which ⁠began just before midnight (2200 GMT).

Tensions in Minneapolis rise over ICE fatal shooting of woman

Tensions between Minnesota and federal officials deepened on Thursday over a U.S. Immigration agent's fatal shooting of a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis, an incident that drew condemnation from local officials and sparked widespread protests in the state and beyond. State and federal officials offered starkly different accounts ‍of the shooting, in which an unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good in a residential neighborhood.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)