Axios

The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday voted to create "a new fact-finding mission to investigate" recent violence against protesters in Iran.

The big picture: The Iranian government has cracked down aggressively on protests that began in September in response to the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in custody. More than 300 people have been killed in the demonstrations, including dozens of children, according to the U.N.

President Biden said Thursday that negotiations between the U.S. and its allies over imposing a price cap on Russian oil are ongoing and confirmed that he had spoken to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the issue.

What they're saying: "It's in play," Biden told reporters while visiting a fire station in Nantucket, Massachusetts, per a White House pool report.

Ukraine on Thursday marked exactly nine months since the start of Russia's brutal invasion, as parts of the country continued to recover from a barrage of Russian missile strikes the day before.

Driving the news: Russian strikes on Wednesday targeted critical infrastructure facilities across Ukraine, causing massive blackouts throughout the country and even in neighboring Moldova.

Global warming is leading to more extreme weather in Australia, like the ongoing flooding in the southeast  — and these extremes are happening at an increased pace across the country, per a new climate report.

Threat level: Australia is facing more extreme heat events, intense heavy rainfall, longer fire seasons and sea level rise, according to the biennial State of the Climate Report by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, published Wednesday.

Brazil's electoral court fined parties in outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro's government Wednesday after they challenged his presidential election loss to leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last month.

Details: Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who heads the electoral court, rejected the challenge and issued a fine totaling 22.9 million reais ($4.27 million) for "bad faith litigation" and ruled government funds for the Liberal Party coalition must be suspended until the penalty is paid, per Reuters.

Pope Francis compared Russia's invasion of Ukraine to a brutal Stalin-era famine on Wednesday in one of his sharpest condemnations yet, the New York Times reports.

Driving the news: During his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, the pope asked people to commemorate "the terrible Holodomor genocide, the extermination by hunger of 1932-33 artificially caused by Stalin" alongside Ukrainians on Saturday.

The commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) tells Axios the U.S. has a "moral duty" to do more to prevent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from ordering a ground offensive into Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria.

The big picture: Turkey has launched drone, air and artillery strikes across the border into Syria over the past four days, with Erdoğan now promising to send in troops and tanks.

The Dominican Republic is facing international criticism over its treatment and deportation of Haitian migrants.

Driving the news: Dominican authorities expelled more than 60,000 Haitians between August and October, a government spokesperson said in a tweet earlier this month.

Measles vaccination rates have steadily declined around the world since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving millions of children susceptible to the virus, according to new data in a joint report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Why it matters: The organizations said measles is "an imminent threat in every region of the world," as it is one of the most contagious human viruses — though it is also entirely preventable through vaccination.

Israel in recent weeks has provided a dossier with intelligence about Iranian arms transfers to Russia to its embassies in dozens of Western countries and senior NATO officials, according to Israeli officials and Israeli Foreign Ministry cables.

Why it matters: The new diplomatic and intelligence effort, which started at the end of October, represents a change in Israeli behavior around Iran's role in the war in Ukraine, which until last month didn’t include active lobbying on the issue to avoid tensions with Russia.

Israel's Security Cabinet reached a decision earlier this month that significantly tightens government oversight on foreign investments, two senior Israeli officials say.

Why it matters: While the decision doesn't explicitly mention China, Israeli officials say the new policy is a response to two years of pressure by the Biden administration to limit China's role in sectors like energy, infrastructure, telecommunications and transportation. 

Qatar 2022 is the most confined World Cup ever, with all eight stadiums located within 33 miles of each other.

Why it matters: The compact setup significantly lessens the travel demands for teams and fans, which has its perks.

Russia launched more missile strikes across Ukraine on Wednesday, hitting energy facilities and causing blackouts throughout the country.

The big picture: Since early October Russia has escalated its missile strikes on Ukraine, targeting the country's critical infrastructure and causing massive blackouts and energy rationing.

An Israeli teen was killed and at least 15 others, including two U.S. citizens, were wounded in two explosions in Jerusalem on Wednesday in what Israeli officials are calling a terrorist attack.

The big picture: These are the first bomb attacks against Israeli citizens in years.