U.S. President Donald Trump's government has asked countries to pay up to $1 billion for a permanent spot on his "Board of Peace" aimed at resolving conflicts, according to its charter seen by AFP.

The board was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, but the charter does not appear to limit its role to the Palestinian territory.

Iran's foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet Wednesday against the United States after Tehran's bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be "firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack."

The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia. American fighter jets and other equipment appears to be moving in the Mideast after a major U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro.

Russia's interior minister has met with top leaders of ally Cuba in Havana, a show of solidarity after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that the island's longtime communist government "is ready to fall."

Trump this month told Havana to "make a deal," the nature of which he did not divulge, or pay a price similar to Venezuela, whose leader Nicolas Maduro was ousted by U.S. forces in a January 3 bombing raid that killed dozens of people.

Sudan's army has received and is considering a new proposal from the United States and Saudi Arabia for a truce with its rival paramilitary, a government source told AFP on Wednesday.

The Security and Defense Council -- a high-level body that includes officials from the army and the allied government -- "is holding a meeting today to discuss the U.S.-Saudi initiative for a humanitarian truce and a ceasefire", the source said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said America's relations with Europe remain strong and urged trading partners to "take a deep breath" and let tensions driven by the Trump administration's new tariff threats over Greenland "play out."

"I think our relations have never been closer," he said, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

French President Emmanuel Macron has sent his U.S. counterpart a message offering to host a G7 summit and invite Russia on the sidelines, the French leader's entourage confirmed on Tuesday.

Macron also proposes inviting Ukraine to the meeting in Paris on Thursday, as well as Denmark to discuss European-U.S. disagreements over Greenland.

European leaders take the stage on Tuesday ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump at the gathering of global elites in Davos.

Trump said he had agreed to a meeting of "various parties" about his attempt to take over Greenland at the Davos gathering of global elites this week.

Russia bombarded Ukraine with more than 300 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles in its latest nighttime attack on the Ukrainian power grid, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as Moscow gives no public sign that it's willing to end the invasion of its neighbor anytime soon.

The attack knocked out heating to more than 5,600 apartment buildings in the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Nearly 80% of the affected buildings had recently had their heating supply restored after a major Russian barrage on Jan. 9 that plunged thousands of people into a dayslong blackout, he said.

U.S. Donald Trump linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last year's decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, telling Norway's prime minister that he no longer felt "an obligation to think purely of Peace," two European officials said Monday.

Trump's message to Jonas Gahr Støre appears to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark. To force European countries that have rallied around Denmark and Greenland toward talks, Trump on Saturday announced a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight nations, including Norway.

An explosion at a hotel in downtown Kabul on Monday killed at least seven, officials said.

The cause of the blast was unclear.