Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country's gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.

Monday's polling in the fourth round of multi-phase national elections across nine states and one union territory will be pivotal for Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as it includes some of its strongholds in states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Russia said on Monday that it had shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions and annexed Crimea.

"During the night new attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist attacks with the help of aerial drones... against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were foiled," the defense ministry said in a statement on the Telegram social media channel.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has delivered some of the Biden administration's strongest public criticism yet of Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant "a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians" but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency.

In a pair of TV interviews Sunday, Blinken underscored that the United States believes Israeli forces should "get out of Gaza," but also is waiting to see credible plans from Israel for security and governance in the territory after the war.

Iran's conservatives and ultra-conservatives clinched more seats in a partial rerun of the country's parliamentary elections, official results showed, tightening their hold on the chamber.

Thousands of people been evacuated from border areas in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, as Russia kept up constant strikes on a key town as part of a cross-border offensive, officials said Sunday.

One of two officers shot and seriously wounded at a police station in Paris was fighting for his life Friday, the police chief of the French capital said.

Police early Friday dismantled a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and moved to clear protesters from University of Pennsylvania's campus in Philadelphia, just hours after police tear-gassed protesters and took down an encampment at the University of Arizona.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, video showed police roaming through the MIT encampment and organizers said about 10 students had been detained. Police in riot gear arrived around 4 a.m., encircled the camp and gave protesters about 15 minutes to leave. A crowd outside the camp began gathering and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans but were dispersed by 6 a.m.

Russia has launched a ground offensive into Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region and fighting there is ongoing, the Ukrainian defense ministry said Friday.

"At approximately 5 am (0200 GMT), the enemy attempted to break through our defense line under the cover of armoured vehicles," the ministry said. A high-ranking Ukrainian military source said Russia had advanced into Ukraine by one kilometer.

Iranians voted Friday in a runoff election for the remaining seats in the country's parliament after hard-line politicians dominated March balloting.

People in 22 constituencies across the country will elect 45 representatives from a pool of 90 candidates, 15 of whom are considered moderate.

On college campuses across the United States, a rallying cry of pro-Palestinian protesters has been " Disclose, divest! We will not stop, we will not rest."

Now some are winning the first of those two demands: Promises to provide information about how much university endowment money is invested in companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war.