Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the military to prepare plans for potential strikes on Iran, the Financial Times reported, citing three sources. The report said US President Donald Trump opposed resuming hostilities ahead of the midterm elections.

French President Emmanuel Macron made an unannounced stop in Riyadh to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, describing it as a visit of solidarity. The stop came during Macron's wider tour of Gulf states.

Taiwan has flight-tested a low-cost attack drone resembling Iran's Shahed design that its manufacturer says could reach targets in mainland China, aiming to overwhelm Chinese air defences amid persistently high cross-strait tensions.

European Union prosecutors searched European Parliament offices linked to the far-right Patriots group as part of a probe into the alleged misuse of more than four million euros by its dissolved predecessor, Identity and Democracy.

Ukraine's president said freezing the front line along current positions could be a first step toward ending the war, as Kyiv insists on a seat at any negotiations and security guarantees from Washington and European allies.

Argentine President Javier Milei used his first public event in Madrid to call Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a 'dictator,' urging Spaniards to vote out the Socialist-led government weeks ahead of Spain's November 29 snap election.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday that he is open to freezing the front lines of the Ukraine-Russia war in an effort to bring the long-running conflict to an end.

Zelenskyy made the remark after being asked by Brian Kilmeade if he would "accept a peace deal that freezes everything the way it is right now, where you still keep 75% or more of your country, regardless of how it started."

"Yes, right now, we have to freeze," Zelenskyy responded. "And I think this is [a] real way to end this war. We call it ceasefire or ‘stop killing’ like President Trump called it.

"Freeze and stop. And, of course, this is the minimum of what we need from Russia today. Then, of course, we will go to [the] president and to Europeans, and we'll ask security guarantees," he continued.

RUSSIA RELEASES AMERICAN TEACHER IMPRISONED ON UKRAINE MERCENARY CHARGES AFTER TRUMP PRESSED PUTIN

"This is the most important … not to be afraid," Zelenskyy also said. "We need 9.5 million people [who have] lost their houses, which are abroad, everywhere. We need them to come back to Ukraine just to live and to build their country."

Russia has often rejected ceasefire deals with Ukraine, saying they would give Kyiv time to rearm themselves.

VIDEO: TRUMP SUGGESTS ZELENSKYY DOES NOT WANT TO END WAR WITH RUSSIA

"There will be no ceasefire to bring him back to his senses and pump him full of weapons," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week, according to the Interfax news agency.

Zelenskyy said on X Wednesday that "Russia strikes our country virtually every hour."

"Of course, we are not losing this war. But we are losing people. Because of the Russian attacks, we're losing people and time. It's such a pity, because our children don't have a real life and childhood. Not only children, but all people," he wrote in another post.

"That's why we need to end this war as quickly as possible. I hope that our partners, Americans and Europeans, will help us. God bless, our strong soldiers stay strong on the battlefield. It helps me stay strong during any kind of negotiations," Zelenskyy added.

The remarks come as President Donald Trump on Wednesday secured the release of Stephen Hubbard from Russia, a retired U.S. teacher who was locked up on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin also agreed Wednesday "in principle" to resume trilateral negotiations with the U.S. and Ukraine after Nov. 10, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said, according to The Associated Press.

Fox News Digital's Alex Nitzberg contributed to this post.

Take President Donald Trump’s threat on the MOAB seriously. The U.S. Air Force’s GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," could figure prominently in any new airstrike plans targeting Iran.

"The mother of all bombs is not nuclear," Trump said. "This is just an extremely large bomb. It’s like a tiny nuclear bomb, but the mother of all bombs is one big bomb, but it’s not nuclear."

"I wouldn’t use nuclear. We don’t have to," Trump said.

FRESH ACTIVITY EMERGES AT IRAN’S DEEPLY BURIED NUCLEAR SITE AS TRUMP WARNS IRAN NOT TO ‘GET CUTE’

He’s right. The U.S. has a range of precision weapons that can knock out any suspicious target in Iran, including the construction activity at Pickaxe Mountain. Admiral Bradley Cooper, commander, United States Central Command, has detailed knowledge of high-value Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps sites that could be MOAB targets.

President Trump has said he won’t strike Iran prior to the midterms, but clearly he is looking at Central Command’s strike briefing charts in great detail. And he wants Iran to know it.

Here are four reasons the MOAB is a formidable threat.

Trump ordered the first use of a MOAB in Afghanistan in April 2017

The MOAB was dropped on April 13, 2017, on a cave complex in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. "There was no surprise," then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis said of the MOAB. "The battle was going on, and we were going to use what was necessary to break ISIS," he added. Mattis said he wasn’t going to waste time "digging into tunnels to count bodies." CNN reported 94 ISIS fighters killed.

Too big for U.S. bombers

While America’s B-2, B-52 and B-1 bombers can easily carry the weight of the 21,000-lb. MOAB, the problem is the shape. The MOAB used in 2017 was too big to fit on the standard racks and rotary launchers in the bomber weapons bays. For the Afghanistan mission, the MOAB was loaded on a special cradle and slid out of the back ramp of an MC-130 while in flight. Don’t worry about the MC-130s. Yes, the basic C-130 is a cargo plane, but the Special Operations versions like the MC-130 are adapted for clandestine missions. This is also where air dominance over Iran comes in handy. The initial weeks of Operation Epic Fury knocked out Iran’s Russian-built integrated air defenses. Subsequent strikes by CENTCOM have prevented Iran from reconstituting their air defenses. MC-130s on a MOAB mission might also get help with electronic warfare and other attack suppression from the Space Force, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy carrier-based aircraft like the EA-18G, F-35C and E-2D.

MOAB is a precision weapon

The clue is the official designation of GBU-43 which stands for Guided Bomb Unit. Small drogue parachutes stabilize the MOAB upon release and then the satellite-guidance kit guides the bomb to the designated point of impact. MOAB is actually an air burst; earlier, smaller heavy air blast weapons were used in World War II and in Vietnam under the name "daisy-cutter." The theory behind an air burst is to maximize blast effect without muffling by the ground.

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Built for the Iraq war

The MOAB was built in great haste by the Air Force Research Lab just prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. At the time, reports suggested Iraq might have built large underground bunkers for dictator Saddam Hussein’s loyal troops. Saddam Hussein back in 1991 had famously taunted the U.S.-led coalition about engaging in "the mother of all battles," which, of course, turned out to be the airpower-led victory of Operation Desert Storm.

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Trump’s decision to bring up the MOAB is all about keeping military pressure on the IRGC as the U.S. naval blockade squeezes their oil revenue. The MOAB would be an intimidation weapon for knocking out military targets. IRGC commanders would face major losses. And it’s also a reminder that the U.S. can carry out any military strike deemed necessary, to prevent Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and stop their terrorism.

Footage filmed in southern Lebanon shows Israeli soldiers walking through a displaced family's home after it was rigged with explosives. The video circulated widely online.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said naval mines prevented three tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. The announcement pushed oil prices higher amid escalating regional tension.

Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed a ninth Ebola case on Tuesday, all linked to a single cluster traced to the Democratic Republic of Congo's ongoing outbreak. Health officials said every patient is improving, even as the United States advised citizens to reconsider travel to Kenya.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is meeting union representatives over nationwide unrest that began with protests led by high school students, as nightly curfews imposed after weekend rioting and looting remain in force. The curfews are still active tonight in the centers of Paris, Lyon and Marseille.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will hold hearings on November 10 and 11 on Argentina's request to halt Britain's Sea Lion oil project north of the Falkland Islands. The hearing dates were set by tribunal president Judge Maurice K. Kamga in an order dated October 20.

British police re-arrested two men on suspicion of assisting Iran's intelligence services, officials said Tuesday. The pair had previously been detained over a suspected link to an incident at a US-run airbase used for strikes on Iran during this year's war. Authorities have not disclosed further details of the investigation.

Qatar's head of intelligence told the Doha Global Security Forum that the country urgently redeployed its entire defence posture within six hours during the war with Iran. He said the rapid shift reflected a broader realignment of Gulf security strategy. A senior US diplomat separately described a changing American military footprint in the region.

A drone strike on a market in Sudan's disputed Abyei border region killed at least 153 people, local officials said, as a nearby fuel depot fire continued to burn.

Italy's government approved deploying 500 troops to Milan and tightened security laws after fuel-price protests disrupted food production in the south.

Argentina's country risk index climbed to its highest level in 11 months, as investors grow more cautious about President Javier Milei's economic agenda heading into the pre-election period.

Sea mines have resurfaced as a threat in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran claimed Oct.17 that two oil tankers caught fire after striking the explosives, raising fresh alarms over the safety of one of the world's most critical shipping lanes.

This came as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) warned that sea mines pose a serious threat to vessels navigating the strategic waterway and while Tehran continues to maintain its own unauthorized shipping corridor inside its territorial waters.

"The traffic separation scheme, the information that we have is that they still have mines. And of course, whilst the conflict is ongoing, it's very difficult for us to use third parties to verify that it is clear of these hazards," IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told Fox News Digital.

INSIDE THE DANGEROUS US MISSION THAT CLEARED IRAN’S MINES FROM HORMUZ SHIPPING LANES

"So in the meantime, we cannot guarantee that a vessel that intends to transit that route will not be hit by a mine."

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said Saturday that two oil tankers caught fire after striking naval mines while crossing the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported, citing Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

State media also said both tankers were carrying about 2 million barrels of crude oil, according to Reuters.

IRNA also reported that the vessels had switched off their positioning and radar systems and attempted to use a route through the strategic waterway that Iran had not authorized.

IRAN WARNS SHIPS OF 'FORCEFUL RESPONSE' AS US-BACKED HORMUZ ROUTE CHALLENGES TEHRAN'S GRIP

The second tanker was left immobilized after striking a mine, according to the Reuters report.

The alleged strikes came as Tehran continued to maintain its transit passageway inside Iranian territorial waters, imposing tolls and safety fees administered by the IRGC — a framework rejected by Washington and the IMO as inconsistent with international maritime law.

International shipping through the narrow chokepoint has historically relied on an IMO-approved traffic separation scheme adopted in 1968.

"Right now there's only one route that was adopted back in 1968 that is approved and recognized for IMO and that appears in all the charts for the vessels to operate," Dominguez explained.

IRAN FAILS TO STRIKE DEAL WITH US AS DEADLINE PASSES AND TRUMP CALLS FOR ‘WHITE FLAG OF SURRENDER'

"There's only one route that should be used for transit, but it's not clear of mines right now, so it's not safe."

"We have received confirmation from Iran about the establishment of its temporary route in the waters," he added before stating that the route was not provided with "an official confirmation or a decision of the organization."

"Any other route needs to actually be sent to the organization to go through the processes, and we have not received that."

"We have received communication from Iran to use that route because of the conflict," Dominguez clarified.

"That's the way that it's been presented. But anything for us to approve needs to go through the mechanisms at the international maritime organizations and the member states need to review it."

The developments also came amid stalled negotiations between Washington and Tehran over ending the conflict and restoring maritime traffic.

DISTRESS CALL CAPTURES TANKER UNDER FIRE, IRAN SHUTS HORMUZ TRAPPING THOUSANDS OF SAILORS

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and a former Revolutionary Guard commander, said Tehran considered Washington's latest response to negotiations "insufficient," Reuters reported, according to IRNA.

Rezaei said the U.S. had accepted some of Iran's seven conditions but that other issues remained unresolved, adding that Tehran was no longer responding to Washington and that the U.S. needed to clarify the outstanding matters.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran had submitted a proposal to Washington through Qatar, which is mediating the negotiations, outlining conditions under which the Strait of Hormuz could reopen and normal maritime traffic resume within seven days.

"Our situation is clear and based on ⁠the seven-day proposal presented to the US. They shared comments which ​we are reviewing, but our proposal is still on the table ​and if there is any honesty on the US part, which there isn't, the way to reopening the Strait of Hormuz is obvious," Araqchi said in ​Baghdad, Reuters reported

IRAN REQUESTS TALKS WITH US AS WHITE HOUSE WARNS 'VIOLENCE WILL BE MET WITH VIOLENCE'

Meanwhile, attacks on commercial vessels around the Strait of Hormuz have surged over the past two weeks.

Senior Iranian officials also told Reuters that Tehran has shifted its strategy for attacking commercial vessels during that period.

For commercial shipping operators, Dominguez warned that the continued threat of mines and attacks means the waterway has yet to return to normal operations.

The Strait of Hormuz is "not open for business in the way that it was before the conflict started," he said.

"Our role right now is to prepare for when we have the opportunity to go back, resume the operations, follow all the procedures at IMO, but not until the root causes are addressed and those are beyond IMO."

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Fox News Digital reached out to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) for comment.

Government forces launched fresh offensives across multiple Yemeni front lines, and a tightening blockade increasingly threatens the besieged city of Taiz. The death toll from fighting in Shabwah province keeps rising.