Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead late Wednesday outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted "free Palestine," authorities said, with U.S., Israeli and other world leaders expressing outrage over the killings.

President Donald Trump condemned the attack in the heart of the U.S. capital, saying: "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!"

Iran and the United States will hold the next round of talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear program in Rome later this week, Tehran and mediator Oman said.

The arch-foes have held four rounds of nuclear talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between them since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal during his first term.

Algeria and France are currently experiencing their worst crisis since the former French colony won independence in 1962, said the author of a landmark report on France's legacy in the north African nation.

It will take painstaking work, including on historical grievances, to restore trust, Benjamin Stora, one of the world's leading experts on French-Algerian history, added in an interview with AFP.

The Palestinian Authority accused Israeli forces of firing on diplomats as they visited the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday, releasing video of two soldiers aiming rifles at a group of people.

It condemned "the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces, which deliberately targeted by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation to the State of Palestine during a field visit to Jenin Governorate." A diplomat present during the visit confirmed to AFP he had heard "repeated shots" coming from inside Jenin refugee camp. An Israeli army spokesperson said: "I am looking into it."

Deputy U.S. Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus has a plan to get Lebanon out of its economic crisis, the diplomat said at an Economic Forum in Qatar.

"The International Monetary Fund is not the only choice," Ortagus said, adding that she has a big plan for Lebanon and a vision that allows Lebanon to become a country of investments and maybe then it would not even need the IMF loan.

The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected Ukrainian and European accusations that it was stalling Ukraine peace talks saying it plans to name its conditions for a ceasefire, but did not give a time frame.

"Nobody is interested in dragging out this process. Everyone is working dynamically," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question about when a "memorandum" announced by Putin can be expected. "Separately, there will be a list of conditions for a ceasefire. This was agreed at Istanbul talks," he said, without saying when either would be published or passed to Kyiv.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that Donald Trump's plan for a "Golden Dome" missile shield required consultations with Russia but was otherwise a "sovereign matter" for the U.S., softening its tone after previously slamming the idea as destabilizing.

"This is a sovereign matter for the United States. If the United States believes that there is a missile threat, then of course it will develop a missile defense system," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding the plan would require resuming nuclear talks with Washington.

A record area of tropical rainforest -- equivalent to 18 football pitches every minute -- was destroyed worldwide last year due in large measure to fires fueled by climate change, researchers reported Wednesday.

The world lost 67,000 square kilometers (25,900 square miles) of precious primary tropical forest, an area double the size of Belgium or Taiwan. That was 80 percent higher than in 2023, according to the Global Forest Watch think tank.

President Joseph Aoun and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that weapons should be under Lebanese state control, meeting in Baabda to discuss disarming Palestinian refugee camps in the country among other issues.

A joint statement released by the Lebanese presidency said the two leaders share the "belief that the era of weapons outside Lebanese state control has ended," adding that both had expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively "in the hands of the Lebanese state."

Israeli strikes on two different locations in south Lebanon killed two people Wednesday, the latest attacks despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

An Israeli enemy drone struck a car in the southern town of Ain Baal in the coastal district of Tyre and few hours later another drone targeted a car in the southern town of Yater.