Hundreds of thousands of workers across India went on a nationwide strike on Wednesday in opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to privatize state-run companies and other economic reforms, partially disrupting public services and manufacturing.

A coalition of 10 major trade unions that represent laborers and several other groups that speak for farmers and rural workers called for the one-day industrial action, dubbing it Bharat Bandh," Hindi for "Shut Down India."

Russia fired a record 728 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, as well as 13 cruise and ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday, in the latest escalation after weeks of mounting Russian aerial and ground attacks in the more than three-year war.

The city of Lutsk, which lies in Ukraine's northwest along the border with Poland and Belarus, was the hardest hit, though 10 other regions were also struck, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

When the onetime director of a Gaza Strip hospital was killed by an Israeli airstrike last week, he joined a growing list of prominent Palestinian doctors who have died during 21 months of war that has devastated the territory's health system.

The death of Dr. Marwan al-Sultan, a 49-year-old cardiologist, was described by colleagues as a major blow personally and professionally, leaving another void in Gaza's medical establishment that will not be easily replaced.

The day after last month's deadly suicide attack on a church outside Syria's capital, hundreds of Christians marched in Damascus chanting against foreign fighters and calling for them to leave the country.

The June 22 attack on the Mar Elias church, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens, was the latest alarm for religious minorities who say they have suffered one blow after another since President Bashar Assad was removed from power in December.

The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group renewed Wednesday a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state.

In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber's YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, declared that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps.

On a grass field slick with olive oil and steeped in tradition, hundreds of boys as young as 11 joined the ranks of Turkey's most time-honored sporting event: the annual Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Championship.

Held every summer in the northwestern city of Edirne, the event is said to date back to the 14th century as a way of keeping the Ottoman Empire's fighting men fit and ready for battle.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been nominated again for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump on Monday that he recommended him for the prestigious award, handing the American leader the letter he said he sent the Nobel committee.

Five Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel's military said Tuesday, while health officials in the Palestinian territory said that 51 people were killed in Israeli strikes.

The bloodshed came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump about a ceasefire plan to pause the Gaza fighting. While there was no announcement of a breakthrough, there were signs of progress toward a deal.

Rescuers launched a search Wednesday for survivors of a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that came under attack from Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, authorities said. At least three mariners were killed and two were wounded.

The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C follows the Iranian-backed Houthis attacking another vessel, the bulk carrier Magic Seas, on Sunday in the Red Sea, which they subsequently sank. The assaults are the first Houthi attacks on shipping since late 2024 in the waterway that had begun to see more ships pass through in recent weeks.

The Israeli army launched a series of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon on Sunday evening, including in the area around the eastern city of Baalbek and in Iqlim al-Tuffah, a mountainous region overlooking large parts of southern Lebanon.