By Antoni Slodkowski and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING/TAIPEI, April 29 (Reuters) - For 23 million Taiwanese, the most consequential diplomatic meeting of 2026 may be one to which they are not invited.

When U.S. President Donald Trump travels to Beijing next month, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has made clear that Taiwan will sit at the top of his agenda, a stark departure from their South Korea meeting last year, where he deliberately set the issue aside.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly clashed with Democratic lawmakers over the Iran war on Wednesday, in his first testimony to Congress since President Donald Trump launched the conflict two months ago.

Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Hegseth quickly struck a combative tone, saying in his opening remarks that the main challenge at this point is the "defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans."

On a vast, sun-scorched plain in Djibouti, dozens of men made the days-long trek home after their plan failed to cross one of the world's deadliest migration routes from Africa to the Gulf.

Their faces drawn, their bodies emaciated, some had not eaten in days. A few withered acacia trees offer the only occasional shade in Djibouti's April "winter", when temperatures still hit 35C.

Jemal Ibrahim Hassan hoped to find work in one of the wealthy Gulf monarchies by travelling from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to Yemen across the narrow but deadly Bab-el-Mandab Strait.

By Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Britain's King Charles did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, introducing the fraught subject of the Middle East conflict into comments at a White House state dinner for the visiting royal.

The event was held on the second day of a four-day visit to the United States at a tense time in ties, after Trump has repeatedly criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for what Trump calls lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.

PANAMA CITY, April 28 (Reuters) - The Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous agency that runs the major freight channel through Central America, on Tuesday said the U.S.-Iran war in the Middle East should cause more shipments to travel through the canal.

"The expectation is that this will continue until the situation in the Middle East is resolved," the agency's finance chief Victor Vial said at a meeting, noting that since October the canal had registered some 300 vessels crossings compared with the same period last fiscal year.

Cairo's famed nocturnal rhythm flickered back to life on Tuesday after Egypt eased energy-saving measures spurred by the Middle East war that had forced shops, cafes and restaurants to close early, dimming a city long defined by its late-night buzz.

Soaring energy prices, driven by the US-Israel conflict with Iran, had prompted month-long restrictions to curb electricity use, compressing social and commercial life in the region's largest metropolis into unfamiliar early hours.

With Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun pushing for direct talks with Israel while Hezbollah rejects them, the country is once again at an impasse after a verbal spat between its leader and the Iran-backed movement.

Lebanon has officially been at war with Israel since 1948, making direct negotiations taboo until recently when two wars between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah exhausted the country.

With Lebanon's leaders facing difficult decisions, where do Aoun and Hezbollah stand, and what lies ahead for the country?

- What does Aoun want? -

By Erin Banco and Gram Slattery

April 28 - U.S. intelligence agencies are studying how Iran would respond if President Donald Trump were to declare a unilateral victory in the two-month-old war that has killed thousands and become a political liability for the White House, two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the matter said.

April 28 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on Lebanese troops and rescuers during a rescue operation in the village of Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon wounded two Lebanese soldiers, the Lebanese army said on Tuesday.

The Lebanese civil defense said three of its members were trapped under rubble after the Israeli attack, adding that efforts were underway with the Lebanese army to evacuate them.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's approval rating fell to the lowest level of his current term, as Americans increasingly souredon his handling of the cost of living and an unpopular war with Iran, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The four-day poll completed on Monday showed 34% of Americans approve of Trump's performance in the White House, down from 36% in a prior Reuters/Ipsos survey, which was conducted from April 15 to 20.