Did the map of the Middle East suddenly just get bigger? On Tuesday, Iran hit points in Iraqi Kurdistan, Syria and – all the way over on its eastern border – separatist militants in Balochistan province. It was payback for recent attacks targeting police in its own Sistan and Baluchestan province. Hitting nuclear-armed Pakistan came as the neighbouring countries were carrying out joint naval exercises. 

How about never? Netanyahu rejects US-backed Saudi peace plan

The plan is straightforward: Gulf states rebuild Gaza and Israel signs onto Saudi Arabia's decades-old roadmap for lasting peace with the Palestinians. The Americans are on board. One party, though, still needs convincing: Israel.

China's baby bust: Population drops for second year in row

China's troubles may only just be starting: for the second year running, the population is declining with two million fewer people: that's double the drop of 2022. Despite the lifting in 2016 of the country's one-child policy, the birth rate seems stuck, fuelling that favorite question: will the country grow old before it grows rich?

For whom the bell rings? Macron's education minister apologises over private school row 

French politics junkies call her AOC: sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who last week was also promoted to education minister when her predecessor Gabriel Attal became prime minister. There were doubting Thomases who wondered if she could handle both portfolios in a year when Paris hosts the Olympics. Then, within 48 hours of her nomination, she hit the political third rail when, on a visit with Attal to a public school northwest of the capital, Oudéa-Castéra was asked why she took her child out of a Paris Latin Quarter public primary school to put him in an exclusive private Catholic school.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati, Peter Hutt-Sierra and Imen Mellaz.