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IAEA board passes resolution demanding answers and access from Iran

VIENNA (Reuters) -The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday saying Iran must inform the watchdog "without delay" of the status of its enriched uranium stock and bombed atomic sites, diplomats at the closed-door meeting said.

The resolution's purpose was primarily to renew and adjust the International Atomic Energy Agency's mandate to report on aspects of Iran's nuclear programme but it also stated Iran must quickly provide the IAEA with the answers and access it wants, five months after military strikes by Israel and the U.S.

People arrive for the quarterly board of governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl

Israel launches fresh strikes on Gaza as Qatar fears for truce

Gaza health authorities said fresh Israeli air strikes killed five people on Thursday, as ceasefire mediator Qatar warned the renewed attacks threatened to undermine the fragile weeks-long truce between Israel and Hamas.

The new strikes came the morning after one of the deadliest days in the Gaza Strip since the truce began on October 10, and after Israel launched a series of attacks targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon despite the nearly year-long ceasefire there.

Qatar said Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip were a 'dangerous escalation'

Syria condemns Netanyahu's visit to its Israeli-occupied south

(Reuters) -Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli troops deployed in southern Syria, drawing strong condemnation from the government in Damascus, which denounced the trip as a violation of sovereignty.

Israel expanded its military presence in southern Syria after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad last December, seizing positions east of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israeli fire kills four in Gaza, casting further doubt on ceasefire

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes killed four people and wounded 18 others in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said, as Hamas and Israel accused each other of violating a near six-week-old, U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Medics said that one strike on a house in Bani Suhaila town east of Khan Younis killed three people, including a baby girl, and wounded 15 others, while another killed a man and wounded three others in the nearby Abassan town.

Palestinians inspect the site of Wednesday's Israeli strike on a tents in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Leaders of ethnically split Cyprus agree to work towards reviving talks

(Reuters) -The rival leaders of ethnically split Cyprus said they were ready to meet the United Nations Secretary-General to discuss the potential for relaunching long-stalled peace talks, the U.N. mission on the island said on Thursday.

Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman met on Thursday, in their first encounter since Erhurman, a centre-left moderate, won by a landslide in an October presidential election in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state, pledging to work to revive stalled U.N. talks on reunifying Cyprus.

Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides speaks during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (not pictured), at the Chancellery Berlin, Germany, November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

The case of Africa's 'vanishing' carbon deals

When Liberia's government signed an agreement with a little-known Dubai company run by a royal sheikh in 2023, the "carbon credit" deal promised to protect vast tracts of forests and offset big polluters' emissions.

It was one of a flurry of deals UAE-based Blue Carbon signed that year covering millions of hectares of forests across Africa from Liberia to Zimbabwe -– in one case amounting to a fifth of a country's landmass.

Forests in countries from Liberia to Zimbabwe were targetted for the Blue Carbon agreements

Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes in West Bank expulsions

(Reuters) -Israel’s expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps in early 2025 amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday, calling for urgent international measures to hold Israeli officials accountable and stop further abuses.

Milena Ansari, a Human Rights Watch researcher, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Analysis-Behind Trump defense of Saudi crown prince, a deeper US shift on human rights

By Matt Spetalnick, Patricia Zengerle and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -When President Donald Trump defended Saudi Arabia's crown prince this week over the 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, he did more than just stir renewed accusations from critics of an affinity toward strongmen.

Trump's remarks, which contradicted U.S. intelligence findings, threw into stark relief just how far his administration has shifted away from the traditional U.S. support for human rights globally.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia attend the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

Australia PM says Turkey to host COP31 climate summit

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia has agreed to allow Turkey to host next year's COP31 climate summit, but Canberra will lead the conference's negotiations among governments, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.

"So what we've come up with is a big win for both Australia and Turkey," Albanese told ABC Radio.

Both Australia and Turkey had submitted bids in 2022 to host the annual COP, or Conference of the Parties, the world's main forum for driving climate action.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Leslie Adler)

FILE PHOTO: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reacts during a press conference in Sydney, Australia, in Sydney, Australia,   September 12, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo

Turkey set to host COP31 climate summit as deal with Australia takes shape

BELEM, Brazil/CANBERRA (Reuters) -Turkey would host next year’s UN climate summit while Australia would lead the conference’s negotiations among governments, under a compromise deal that three sources familiar with the matter said was taking shape in talks on Thursday.

Australia and Turkey both submitted bids in 2022 to host the annual COP, or Conference of the Parties, the world's main forum for driving climate action.

The two nations have been in a protracted struggle to host, with neither willing to back down.

FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev attend the opening of the Belem Climate Summit plenary session, as part of the COP30 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Belem, Brazil, November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo