Chinese warplanes tailed a U.S. military aircraft through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, China's military said.

The U.S. aircraft was a P-8A Poseidon patrol and reconnaissance plane, capable of conducting long-range anti-submarine warfare, according to a statement by the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command.

Iran's new reformist president has insisted that Tehran didn't want to enrich uranium at near-weapons grade levels but had been forced to by the U.S. withdrawal from its nuclear deal with world powers.

The comments by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in response to a question by The Associated Press at his first news conference, underlines a campaign promise he made to try to see international sanctions on the Islamic Republic lifted. However, it remains unclear just how much room for negotiation Pezeshkian will have — and just who will be in the White House come next year.

The embattled U.S. Secret Service has defended its role a day after a gunman managed to lie in wait for Donald Trump, as another apparent assassination attempt heightened fears of election violence.

U.S. media named Ryan Wesley Routh, whom AFP interviewed in Kyiv in 2022 where he had traveled to support the war effort, as the suspected would-be assassin of Donald Trump.

Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen were detained in Venezuela on suspicion of plotting to destabilize the country, the government said Saturday, as the United States denied Caracas's allegations it was involved.

Pope Francis on Friday accused both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris of being "against life" as he returned to Rome from an epic 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Joe Biden have delayed a decision to let Ukraine fire long-range Western-supplied missiles into Russia, a plan that sparked dire threats from Moscow of a war with NATO.

Starmer told reporters at the White House that he had a "wide-ranging discussion about strategy" with Biden but that it "wasn't a meeting about a particular capability."

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West's global influence.

Xi's visit to Russia will be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin's contentions that Russia's action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for weapons production.

The Russian authorities accused six British diplomats of spying and said they would be expelled, as tensions between Moscow and the West grow during an intensified push by Ukraine to loosen restrictions on using weapons provided by the U.S. and Britain to strike Russia.

The head of Russia's Security Council Sergei Shoigu met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday, Moscow said, weeks after the Kremlin signed a defense pact with Pyongyang.

The visit comes as Moscow seeks ammunition to continue its more than 30-month offensive in Ukraine and as the West accuses Pyongyang of sending arms to Moscow.