Iran on Wednesday executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, in defiance of pleas from his family and activists for his life to be spared after what they described as an unfair trial.
Pedram Madani, 41, was hanged in Ghezelhesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran after earlier this week being transferred from Evin prison in the capital where he had been held following his arrest in 2019.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi backed week-long nationwide strikes by truckers Wednesday as a "loud call" to the authorities, after arriving home from his triumph at the Cannes film festival.
Truck drivers across Iran were striking for a seventh day on Wednesday in a stoppage rare in its length and magnitude, seeking better conditions in a sector crucial for the economy in the Islamic republic.
Ministers of the OPEC+ oil alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, discussed production on Wednesday as another hike looms despite falling prices.
The 22-nation group began a series of cuts in 2022 to prop up crude prices, but Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other members surprised markets recently by sharply raising output for May and June.
The move has put pressure on prices, which have also fallen as investors worry that US President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught will cause an economic slump and weigh on demand.
With reports of acute suffering in Gaza flooding the airwaves, EU leaders have toughened their tone on Israel -- but the bloc will need to bridge deep divisions to move from rhetoric to a real-world impact on the conflict.
The shift has been most noticeable from key power Germany, one of Israel's staunchest allies in the world, its loyalty rooted in the trauma of the Holocaust.
Israeli air strikes blew up the last remaining plane at rebel-held Yemen's international airport, Israel and a Yemeni official said on Wednesday, weeks after an earlier attack inflicted major damage.
An air raid involving multiple strikes hit the Yemenia Airways plane and the runway at Sanaa airport, the Huthi rebels' Al-Masirah TV channel posted on X, decrying "Israeli aggression".
Thick black smoke was seen billowing from a stricken plane on the tarmac, in a video posted on X by Sanaa airport director Khaled al-Shaief who said it was Yemenia's last operational aircraft.
French activists dyed a Paris fountain red Wednesday to symbolise what they called the "bloodbath" of Palestinians in Gaza.
Activists from Oxfam and Amnesty International poured dye into the Fontaine des Innocents in the heart of the French capital, while others held placards saying "Cease fire" and "Gaza: stop the bloodbath".
"This operation aims to denounce France's slow response to an absolute humanitarian emergency facing the people of Gaza today," the activists, which included the French branch of Greenpeace, said in a joint statement.
Israel said Wednesday its military killed Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas's presumed Gaza leader and the brother of Yahya, slain mastermind of the October 2023 attacks that sparked the Gaza war.
On the war's 600th day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel's Gaza offensive, saying it had killed tens of thousands of militants including Mohammed Sinwar -- nicknamed "the shadow".
Israeli media said Sinwar was targeted by strikes in southern Gaza earlier this month. His brother was killed in October 2024.
Nearly 380 writers from the UK and Ireland, including Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, penned an open letter Wednesday denouncing what they called Israel's "genocide" in Gaza and urging a ceasefire.
The letter called on "our nations and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror," they wrote in a letter published on the Medium website.
France and Indonesia called Wednesday for progress on "mutual recognition" between Israel and the Palestinians at a key meeting next month as Emmanuel Macron visited Jakarta, bringing the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation into his diplomatic efforts.
It came as Paris and Jakarta signed a series of cooperation agreements, with Macron seeking to deepen trade and defence ties with Southeast Asia's largest economy on a three-country tour promoting France as a balancing power between the United States and China.
An Iranian director is breathing new life into William Shakespeare's "King Lear" with a bold staging in Tehran infused with rock music and a dazzling light show to attract younger audiences.
In Iran, artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and playwrights must walk a tightrope to avoid censorship of content the authorities deem inappropriate.
But despite political tensions between Tehran and the West, many international works still make it to the Iranian stage.
