World News Roundup: 'Japan is a buy,' PM Kishida tells City of London; Analysis-Rising oil prices buy Iran time in nuclear talks, officials say and more

Last year, the Islamic Republic engaged in indirect talks with the United States as a route to cancelling U.S. sanctions that have gutted revenues and dramatically worsened economic hardships for ordinary people, stirring discontent. Exclusive-CIA chief told Bolsonaro government not to mess with Brazil election, sources say The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director last year told senior Brazilian officials that President Jair Bolsonaro should stop casting doubt on his country's voting system ahead of the October election, sources told Reuters.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

'Japan is a buy,' PM Kishida tells City of London

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took his appeal for foreign investment to the bankers and investors of the City of London on Thursday, saying his shift to an upgraded version of capitalism would spur economic growth. In a speech at the medieval Guildhall at the heart of Britain's financial district, Kishida set out his plan to grow the world's third-largest economy by attracting private-sector investment and redistributing wealth.

Analysis-Rising oil prices buy Iran time in nuclear talks, officials say

Emboldened by an oil price surge since Russia invaded Ukraine, Iran's clerical rulers are in no rush to revive a 2015 nuclear pact with world powers to ease sanctions on its energy-reliant economy, three officials familiar with Tehran's thinking said. Last year, the Islamic Republic engaged in indirect talks with the United States as a route to canceling U.S. sanctions that have gutted revenues and dramatically worsened economic hardships for ordinary people, stirring discontent.

Exclusive-CIA chief told Bolsonaro government not to mess with Brazil election, sources say

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director last year told senior Brazilian officials that President Jair Bolsonaro should stop casting doubt on his country's voting system ahead of the October election, sources told Reuters. The previously unreported comments by CIA Director William Burns came in an intimate, closed-door meeting in July, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Burns was, and remains, the most senior U.S. official to meet in Brasilia with Bolsonaro's right-wing government since the election of U.S. President Joe Biden.

India's Kashmir region gets redrawn constituencies ahead of elections

India published on Thursday a new list of redrawn political constituencies for the former state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), giving greater representation to the Muslim-majority region's Hindu areas and paving the way for fresh elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government broke up J&K into two federal territories in 2019 as part of a move to tighten its grip over the region, which is at the heart of more than 70 years of hostility between India and Pakistan.

As scandals overshadow vote, UK PM Johnson faces election test

Voters in Britain went to the polls in local government elections on Thursday where they are expected to punish Prime Minister Boris Johnson over a cost-of-living crisis and fines for breaking his own COVID-19 lockdown rules. The elections are seen as a test of support for Johnson, who became the first British leader in living memory to have broken the law while in office when he was fined last month for attending a birthday gathering in his office in 2020.

Italy launches security probe as tempers fray over Russians on TV

An Italian parliamentary panel has opened an investigation into "disinformation" on television amid a heated debate over the frequent appearance of Russian guests on the country's news programs during the war in Ukraine. The Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (Copasir) which oversees the intelligence services, said on Wednesday it had summoned the heads of Italy's state TV network, state security agency and communications watchdog.

Israel's top court paves way for razing eight Palestinian hamlets

Israel's Supreme Court has rejected a petition against the eviction of more than 1,000 Palestinian inhabitants of a rural part of the occupied West Bank in an area that Israel has designated for military exercises. After two decades of inconclusive legal maneuvering, the Supreme Court issued its ruling late on Wednesday, paving the way for the demolition of eight small villages in a rocky, arid area near Hebron known to Palestinians as Masafer Yatta and to Israelis as the South Hebron Hills.

Analysis-War a lost opportunity for Turkey's westward outreach

Before traveling to Moscow last week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stopped over in Ankara to meet Tayyip Erdogan and praise the Turkish leader's diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Less than two hours after the two shook hands, a big part of the goodwill that Ankara has engendered in the West through its unique role as mediator between warring parties was undone, undermining Turkey's chances of capitalizing on thawing ties.

Spanish police detain pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger accused of treason

Spanish authorities have detained a pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger and aspiring politician on an international arrest warrant for suspected treason, a police source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said Anatoliy Shariy, a vocal critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his pro-Western government, had been detained in the coastal city of Tarragona in Catalonia, the source said, without providing further details.

Ukraine leader appeals for truce to dig out civilians trapped under steel plant

Civilians will need to be dug from bunkers under a steelworks that is the last holdout of resistance in Ukraine's Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday, after a Russian bombardment that has littered the area with concrete debris. Having failed to capture the capital Kyiv in the early weeks of an invasion that has killed thousands and flattened towns and villages, Russia has accelerated attacks in southern and eastern Ukraine, including on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

(With inputs from agencies.)