The International Court of Justice is ruling Friday on whether it has jurisdiction to hear a case filed by Ukraine in the days after Russia's invasion accusing Moscow of breaching the genocide convention.

In the highly-charged case, Kyiv claims that Russia breached the landmark 1948 convention by using trumped-up claims of genocide in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as a pretext for attacking Ukraine nearly two years ago. Ukraine also accuses Moscow of "planning acts of genocide."

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said it's time to further disable Iran-backed militias that have struck at U.S. forces and ships in the Middle East and the U.S. is preparing to take significant action in response to the deaths of three U.S. service members in Jordan.

For days the U.S. has hinted strikes are imminent. While the threat of retaliation for Sunday's deaths has driven some militant groups to say they were stopping hostilities, as late as Thursday Yemen's Houthi rebels were still attacking vessels and fired a ballistic missile at a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Red Sea.

A vehicle loaded with gas exploded and set off an inferno that burned homes and warehouses in Kenya's capital early Friday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 270, with the death toll expected to rise.

Many residents were likely inside their homes when the fire reached their houses late in the night in the Mradi area of the Nairobi neighborhood of Embakasi, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said.

President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals.

Those settlers were involved in acts of violence, as well as threats and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property, according to the order. The penalties aim to block the four from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them. U.S. officials said they were evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war.

Satellite photos show new demolition along a 1-kilometer-deep path on the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, according an analysis by The Associated Press and expert reports. The destruction comes as Israel has said it wants to establish a buffer zone there, over international objections, further tearing away at land the Palestinians want for a state.

The demolition along the path represents only a sliver of the wider damage from the Israel-Hamas war seen in Gaza, which one assessment suggests has damaged or destroyed half of all the buildings within the coastal enclave.

President Joe Biden has chatted with a friendly union crowd inside a United Auto Workers hall in Michigan as pro-Palestinian demonstrators held back by police with riot shields voiced their anger nearby at the president's full-throated support for Israel in its war with Hamas.

The tension highlighted the challenges ahead for Biden in holding on to this critical battleground state in November over likely rival Donald Trump, and underscored the Democrats' concerns about flagging enthusiasm among voters who have been key to their coalition.

Police have rescued seven hostages held at gunpoint for hours at a factory owned by U.S. company Procter & Gamble in northwest Turkey, local officials said early Friday.

A gunman had sparked the standoff at the P&G facility in Gebze, Kocaeli province, in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Governor Seddar Yavuz was quoted as saying by state-run Anadolu news agency.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will join grieving families at Dover Air Force Base on Friday to honor three American servicemembers killed in a drone attack in Jordan, a solemn ritual that has become relatively uncommon in recent years as the U.S. withdrew from conflicts abroad.

The Bidens will attend a "dignified transfer" as the remains of the troops killed in the overnight assault Sunday return to U.S. soil. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will join the Bidens for the transfer in Dover, where such events take place when U.S. servicemembers are killed in action.

Half of U.S. adults say Israel's 15-week-old military campaign in Gaza has "gone too far," a finding driven mainly by growing disapproval among Republicans and political independents, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Broadly, the poll shows support for Israel and the Biden administration's handling of the situation ebbing slightly further across the board. The poll shows 31% of U.S. adults approve of Biden's handling of the conflict, including just 46% of Democrats. That's as an earlier spike in support for Israel following the Hamas attacks Oct. 7 sags.

Britain's top diplomat has said that his country is proposing a plan to de-escalate tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been trading fire near-daily for the past four months, sparking fears of a wider war.

The plan would include Britain training Lebanese army forces to carry out more security work in the border region, he said.