An offshore earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 hit off a southern Philippine province Friday morning, and a hazardous tsunami was possible nearby.

Strikes on Russian oil facilities by Ukraine's newly developed long-range missiles and drones are causing significant gas shortages in Russia, while on the battlefield a recent Ukrainian counter-offensive has derailed Russia's plans to capture parts of the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.

Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, whose philosophical, bleakly funny novels often unfold in single sentences, won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for his “compelling and visionary oeuvre.”

Israel and Hamas have agreed to pause fighting in Gaza and release at least some hostages and prisoners in an agreement that was put forward by the Trump administration and would represent the biggest breakthrough in months in the devastating two-year-old war.

In a historic development for the Indian diaspora, California has designated Diwali as an official state holiday, becoming the third state in the US to officially recognise the Indian festival of lights as a holiday.

The White House clarified on Monday that no US government employees have been laid off “right now.” Stepping back from President Donald Trump’s earlier remarks suggesting that job losses were already underway due to the ongoing federal shutdown, officials, however, cautioned that layoffs could occur if Congress fails to restore government funding soon.

 John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for research into quantum mechanical tunnelling.

In one of her final recorded interviews, legendary primatologist Jane Goodall humorously suggested sending several world leaders and billionaires on a one-way trip into space, comparing their aggressive traits to those of alpha male chimpanzees.