Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz told his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth early Thursday that Israel is determined to keep its forces in "security zones" it has carved out inside Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, Katz's office said the two men spoke overnight and the minister "emphasized Israel's determination to remain in the security zones in Syria, Gaza, and Lebanon in order to protect Israel's borders and the communities near the border from the threats posed by jihadist forces".

A team of international scientists sets sail Thursday from Britain for Greenland to study its rapidly melting ice using drones, mini-submarines and autonomous swimming robots.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it has approved the sale of an estimated $1.96 billion in weapons to bolster Saudi Arabia's air defenses, as the war ramps up in the Middle East.

Pakistan said on Thursday it would encourage the United States and Iran to stop violence and resume talks under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) it helped mediate last month.

A drone struck a ship located off the port in Iraq's southern province of Basra on Thursday, a security official told AFP.

The United Nations atomic agency's head has denounced the killing of the chief engineer of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in a drone strike Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

Tehran on Thursday accused the United States of carrying out a "barbaric attack" after a cancer hospital in Iran's southwest was forced to evacuate due to nearby strikes.

Ukraine's ousted defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Thursday accused commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky of trying to divide the war-torn country, detailing a feud between the pair that led to his removal and triggered protests supporting him.

The British government said Thursday it had taken British Steel into full public ownership to "protect the future of steel production in the UK", after taking control from Chinese firm Jingye.

Syrian authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle a shipment of advanced weapons and missiles through the Iraqi-Syrian border, the Syrian interior ministry has announced.