Electricity was cut off across Spain and Portugal and part of southern France on Monday in a massive blackout that impacted millions of people, grid operators said.

The cause for the outage was not immediately identified.

Worldwide military expenditure saw its steepest rise in 2024 since the end of the Cold War, reaching $2.7 trillion as wars and rising tensions drove up spending, researchers said Monday.

In real terms, spending rose by 9.4 percent globally compared to 2023, with 2024 marking the 10th year of consecutive spending increases, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Iran accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of trying to dictate U.S. policy in negotiations, after he called for the complete dismantling of Tehran's nuclear program and for the inclusion of its ballistic missile capabilities in any deal.

"What is striking... is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.

Russia said Monday that its claims over five Ukrainian regions including Crimea were "imperative" to talks aimed at resolving the conflict.

"International recognition of Russia's ownership of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk People's Republic, the Lugansk People's Republic, the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is imperative," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Brazilian newspaper O Globo, using the Kremlin's names for the Ukrainian regions.

The United States and Iran reported progress in their latest round of nuclear talks on Saturday and agreed to meet again next week as they pursue a deal that could help ease soaring Middle East tensions.

Fires were still blazing on Sunday after a massive explosion tore through Iran's largest commercial port the day before, killing at least 25 people and leaving 1,000 others injured, according to state media.

A "massive explosion" and fire took place at a key port in the Iranian province of Hormozgan more than 1,000 kilometers south of Tehran, state media reported Saturday.

"The explosion occurred in a part of the Shahid Rajaee port dock, and we are extinguishing the fire," state television quoted senior Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Administration official Esmaeil Malekizadeh as saying.

Iran has offered Pakistan to act as a mediator in its conflict with India, Tehran's foreign ministry said Saturday, after an attack in Kashmir heightened tensions between the two Asian neighbors.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi "declared Iran's readiness to extend its goodwill efforts to help reduce tensions" in a phone call Friday with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, the foreign ministry said. Araghchi has said on X that his country was "ready to use its good offices" to resolve the conflict.

World dignitaries and Catholic faithful attended Pope Francis' funeral in St. Peter's Square on Saturday.

Despite the presence of presidents and princes, prisoners and migrants ushered him into the basilica where he will be buried, reflecting his priorities as pope, as hundreds of thousands have flocked to the funeral mass.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump met briefly on Saturday in Rome on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral, the Ukrainian presidency announced, after the White House said Kyiv and Moscow were "very close to a deal".

"The meeting took place and is already over," Zelensky's spokesman Sergiy Nykyforov told journalists without elaborating.