In the span of a single week, the dismissal of a Ukrainian defense minister set in motion a transformation of the country's armed forces that replaced the old guard with a new generation of leadership.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to fire his popular defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, triggered days of public protest that quickly shifted toward the country's commander-in-chief and highlighted the growing rift over the future of Ukraine's military.

The Houthi rebels' threat to blockade Saudi Arabia has the potential to widen the Iran war and further disrupt global oil supplies and international trade.

The Iran-backed rebels say they have closed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping in retaliation for the kingdom's blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on the international airport in Yemen's rebel-held capital, Sanaa. The Houthis said on Thursday they had attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, causing fires to break out on both.

France's new coach will be announced next Tuesday, when Zinedine Zidane is widely expected to replace Didier Deschamps.

The French Football Federation said in a statement on Thursday that its president Philippe Diallo will name the coach at a news conference at the headquarters in Paris.

Thousands of young protesters were camped on the streets of India's capital New Delhi on Thursday, defying new restrictions in the latest show of strength for a movement that has become one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

India's "Cockroach" protests began more than a month ago over alleged leaks in some of the country's most competitive entrance exams for medical colleges and government jobs. The movement has since expanded beyond exam grievances, drawing professionals and families while channeling broader frustration.

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham's announcements during his first 24 hours on the job underscore the political and financial challenges he faces as he tries to jump-start the country's sluggish economy.

Burnham, from Britain's left-leaning Labour Party, faces restive voters seeking relief from the high cost of living. At the same time, the investors who help finance the government by buying its bonds are demanding that he reduce public sector debt that has ballooned to levels last seen in the 1960s.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have forged a new agreement that could potentially provide the kingdom with uranium enrichment capability for its civilian nuclear program.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy Abdulaziz bin Salman formally signed the nuclear cooperation agreement, known as a "123 agreement," alongside what the Trump administration described as a "bilateral safeguards agreement."

Before the war in Iran, roughly 15 million barrels of Persian Gulf oil were shipped each day through the Strait of Hormuz. Within a few years, much of that oil could bypass the strait.

As Iran's chokehold over the strait drags on and oil prices surge, countries across the Gulf are planning to spend billions of dollars to build pipelines enabling them to redirect more supplies to ports along the Red Sea, Suez Canal and Gulf of Oman.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said early Thursday they had attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, and the U.S. military conducted a 12th night of strikes against Iran as the two countries vie for control of vital shipping lanes.

The Houthi attack in the Red Sea threatened to open a new front in a war that has roiled the global economy, sending prices for fuel and other goods surging across the world. With the standoff in the Gulf deepening, there were no signs of progress in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday in the Philippines for talks where he was expected to renew the prospect of the U.S. trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.

The U.S. State Department offered few details about the meeting on the sidelines of an annual gathering by foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila. "They discussed the U.S.-Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war," a State Department spokesperson said.

The man convicted of trying to kill Salman Rushdie spent years researching the writer's whereabouts before stabbing him on a lecture stage, federal prosecutors said Wednesday at the opening of his federal terrorism trial.

It is a second trial for Hadi Matar, who was found guilty in a New York state attempted murder case last year. The federal terror charges focus more on Matar's alleged motive for the attack on the renowned author and free-speech advocate in 2022.