Spotlight
Police in Belgium on Tuesday shot dead a suspected Tunisian extremist accused of killing two Swedish soccer fans in a brazen shooting on a Brussels street before disappearing into the night.
Hours after a manhunt began in the Belgian capital, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden posted on X, formerly Twitter, that "the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Brussels has been identified and has died."

Republicans are heading to the House Tuesday for the second time this Congress to try and elect a speaker, marking what they hope will be a unifying moment for a party that has been in turmoil for weeks.
GOP lawmakers are expected to rally their votes behind Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to be the next speaker despite reluctance from some who are wary of his hardline approach. Conservatives have been mounting an intense pressure campaign to persuade the final holdouts to support him.

The U.N. Security Council rejected a Russian resolution Monday night that condemned violence and terrorism against civilians but made no mention of Hamas, whose surprise attack reportedly killed 1,300 Israelis.
Only four countries joined Russia in voting for the resolution — China, United Arab Emirates, Mozambique and Gabon. Four countries voted against it — the United States, Britain, France and Japan. The other six countries abstained. Adoption needs a minimum of nine "yes" votes in the 15-member council.

From its first months in office, the Biden administration made a distinctive decision on its Middle East policy: It would deprioritize a half-century of high-profile efforts by past U.S. presidents, particularly Democratic ones, to broker a broad and lasting peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Since Richard Nixon, successive U.S. administrations have tried their hands at Camp David summits, shuttle diplomacy and other big-picture tries at coaxing Israeli and Palestinian leaders into talks to settle the disputes that underlie 75 years of Middle East tensions. More than other recent presidents, Joe Biden notably has not.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Tuesday that "no one can stop" forces opposed to Israel if it keeps up its bombardment of Gaza in response to the surprise attack by Hamas.
The Islamic republic has maintained close contacts with its allies across the region since Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border with Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet this week with Chinese leaders in Beijing on a visit that underscores China's support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine.
The two countries have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that is now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war. China has sought to balance its ties with Israel with its economic relations with Iran and Syria, which are strongly backed by Russia.

A 71-year-old Illinois man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman has been charged with a hate crime. Police allege he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
In recent days, police in U.S. cities and federal authorities have been on high alert for violence driven by antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments. FBI officials, along with Jewish and Muslim groups, have reported an increase of hateful and threatening rhetoric.

France will deploy 7,000 soldiers after a Chechen-origin man fatally stabbed a teacher and severely wounded three other adults at a school in the northeastern town of Arras, the Elysee presidential palace said Saturday.
The attack on Friday was denounced by President Emmanuel Macron as an act of "Islamist terror" in Arras, which has large Jewish and Muslim populations.

A man armed with a knife killed a teacher at the high school in northern France he once attended and critically wounded another teacher and a security guard Friday, authorities said, an attack being investigated as potential terrorism amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas.
French anti-terror prosecutors said they were leading the investigation into the attack at the Gambetta high school in the city of Arras, some 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris. They said they were investigating charges including terror-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect, who was arrested.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his record governing the nation for four years without any new wars, and criticized President Joe Biden's foreign policy as the world watches a war that has already claimed 2,300 lives unfold in Gaza, ignited by Hamas' attack on Israel.
Trump and other Republicans have tried to lay blame on the Biden administration, particularly citing the release of nearly $6 billion in frozen assets to Iran, a supporter of Hamas. Administration officials insist that money has not been spent.
