Reuters World News Summary

"We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Biden warns Iran against targeting US troops in Middle East President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Inside the Maine hospital that treated shooting victims

Dr. Richard King was driving home from the Central Maine Medical Center on Wednesday night when he received an urgent call from a fellow trauma surgeon alerting him that victims of a mass casualty event were flooding the hospital. King, the trauma medical director, immediately turned around and sped through Lewiston's streets with his hazard lights flashing, arriving to discover what he later described in an interview as a nightmarish scene. The emergency room was overflowing with wounded and bleeding patients, casualties of the latest mass shooting to hit an American city.

The Hamas tunnel city beneath Gaza - a hidden frontline for Israel

What lies in wait for Israeli ground troops in Gaza, security sources say, is a Hamas tunnel network hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80 metres deep, described by one freed hostage as "a spider's web" and by one expert as the "Viet Cong times 10". The Palestinian Islamist group has different kinds of tunnels running beneath the sandy 360-sq-km coastal strip and its borders - including attack, smuggling, storage and operational burrows, Western and Middle East sources familiar with the matter said.

China's Wang to Blinken: 'In-depth' dialogue can steady ties

The United States and China have disagreements and need "in-depth" and "comprehensive" dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties, China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, said on Thursday, kicking off a long-anticipated visit to Washington. Standing next to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Wang said the two countries share important common interests and challenges that they need to resolve together.

White House: Russia is executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders

The United States has information that the Russian military is executing soldiers who do not follow orders related to the war with Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday. "We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Biden warns Iran against targeting US troops in Middle East

President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region. "There was a direct message relayed," White House spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate.

EU calls for humanitarian pauses for Gaza aid as Israel raids enclave

European Union leaders urged pauses in Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks so humanitarian aid could be delivered to Gaza, and U.S. President Joe Biden told Iran's supreme leader not to target U.S. personnel in the Mideast. Israel's military, which has been carrying out limited raids into Gaza as it prepares for a ground incursion of the enclave, said early on Friday it was "currently conducting raids in the Gaza Strip as part of preparations for the next stage of the operation."

Argentina poll shows ruling party hopeful Massa leading Milei

The presidential standard-bearer for Argentina's ruling Peronists, Sergio Massa, has opened up a lead over his far-right rival Javier Milei with less than a month to go before the decisive run-off vote, according to a poll released on Thursday.

The survey from pollster Analogias put support for Massa, the outgoing government's economy chief, at about 42% versus 34% for Milei, a combative self-described anarco-capitalist.

Broken Lebanon cannot afford war, and Hezbollah knows it

With an economy in ruins and a crumbling state, Lebanon can ill afford another war between Hezbollah and Israel. Iran-backed Hezbollah knows this and is keeping Lebanon's crises in mind as it plots the next steps in the conflict with Israel, sources say.

Maine hunts for Army reservist suspected of killing 18 in Lewiston

Police on Thursday searched the woods, waterways and towns of Maine for a U.S. Army reservist wanted in connection with the mass shootings that killed 18 people and wounded 13 more the previous night at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston. The town of Lewiston, a former textile hub of 38,000 people, and neighboring communities largely shut down to enable hundreds of officers to expand their manhunt with an arrest warrant for Robert R. Card. Card, 40, is a sergeant at a nearby U.S. Army Reserve base who law enforcement officials said had been temporarily committed to a mental health facility over the summer.

At least 27 killed by 'disastrous' Hurricane Otis, damage seen in billions

Hurricane Otis claimed the lives of at least 27 people, Mexico's government said on Thursday after one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the country hammered the beach resort of Acapulco, causing damage seen running into billions of dollars. Otis, which struck Mexico Wednesday as a Category 5 storm, flooded streets, ripped roofs off homes and hotels, submerged cars and cut communications, road and air access, leaving a trail of wreckage across Acapulco, a city of nearly 900,000.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)