Following is a summary of current world news briefs. U.S. could restrict funds for ‘malign activities’ over Navalny poisoning

The United States told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday it would work with allies to hold accountable those responsible for poisoning Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, including “through restricting funds for malign activities.” “Russia has used chemical nerve agents from the ‘Novichok’ group in the past. The Russian people have a right to express their views without fear of retribution of any kind,” the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Cherith Norman-Chalet, told a council meeting on chemical weapons in Syria. Emergency Brexit talks as EU explores UK plan to break divorce treaty

Britain and the European Union will hold emergency talks on Thursday over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to undercut parts of the Brexit divorce treaty, a step Brussels has warned could scupper any chance of a trade deal. After Britain explicitly stated that it would act outside international law by breaching the divorce treaty, EU negotiators are trying to gauge how to deal with London after four years of tumultuous Brexit talks. Latin America passes 8 million coronavirus cases: Reuters tally

The coronavirus tally passed the 8 million mark on Thursday in Latin America, the region with the most infections in the world, though there were indications the virus was now spreading more slowly in some countries. Over the past week the daily average of cases in the region fell to 67,173 through Wednesday from 80,512 in the previous seven days, according to the Reuters tally, which is based on figures released by governments. Mexico’s militarized police under investigation after deadly clash with protesters

Prosecutors in Mexico are questioning 17 militarized police involved in a gunfight that killed a woman and left her husband injured, officials said on Thursday, after tensions flared in protests against a dam diverting water to the United States. On Wednesday, the National Guard militarized police said two people were killed after its officers “repelled aggression” from armed civilians in the town of Delicias in drought-hit northern Chihuahua state, following violent demonstrations at the nearby La Boquilla dam. Protests flare in Libya’s Benghazi over power cuts, living conditions

Scores of people protested in Benghazi on Thursday over power cuts and living conditions, witnesses said, burning tyres and blocking some roads in an unusual public show of dissent in the eastern Libyan city. Benghazi is the base of Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), which is fighting in a civil war against the internationally recognised Government of National Accord in Tripoli, in the country’s west. Trump says U.S. to cut Iraq troops to about 2,000 in ‘very short’ time

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that U.S. troop numbers in Iraq would be down to about 2,000 in a very short period of time. At a White House news conference, Trump went further than a U.S. official speaking last month, who said the United States would go down to about 3,500 troops in Iraq in the next two to three months. Trump says another country could join Israel-UAE accord

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday it was possible another country could soon join a diplomatic accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Trump is to host a signing ceremony next Tuesday that will include delegations with Israel and the UAE. His negotiators have been trying to get other Gulf nations, such as Bahrain and Oman, to join in normalizing relations with Israel. Huge blaze at Beirut port alarms residents a month after massive blast

A large fire erupted at Beirut port on Thursday, engulfing parts of the Lebanese capital in a pall of smoke weeks after a massive blast devastated the port and ruined a swathe of the city. The blaze began in the shattered duty-free zone of the port, prompting some residents to flee the city still traumatised by last month’s explosion that had followed a port fire. Vaccine confidence volatile, vulnerable to misinformation, global study finds

Political polarisation and online misinformation are threatening vaccination programmes worldwide, with public trust volatile and varying widely between countries, according to a global vaccine confidence study. The study, which maps trends in vaccine confidence across 149 countries between 2015 and 2019, found that scepticism about the safety of vaccines tended to grow alongside political instability and religious extremism. U.S. blacklists Ukrainian accused of meddling in 2020 election

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker linked to Republican efforts to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, accusing him of trying to interfere in the U.S. election. In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said it had blacklisted Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach, who it accused of being “an active Russian agent for over a decade,” using “manipulation and deceit” in his effort to influence elections in the United States and around the world.