Voting for justice: Barber, locals: Poor must vote Nov. 8

North Korea has launched two ballistic missiles into its eastern waters after the U.S. redeployed an aircraft carrier in response to the North’s earlier launch of a nuclear-capable missile over Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said North Korea’s continued launches were “absolutely intolerable.” The launches Tuesday were North Korea’s sixth round of weapons tests in less than two weeks, adding to a record number of missile launches this year that has been condemned by the United States and other countries. Thursday’s launches came as the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan returned to waters east of South Korea.

A regional leader says seven Russian rockets have slammed into residential buildings in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and trapping at least five in the city close to Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant. The predawn strikes Thursday came hours after Ukraine’s president announced that the country’s military had retaken three more villages in one of the regions illegally annexed by Russia. Zaporizhzhia is home to Europe’s largest nuclear plant, now under Russian occupation. The city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control. The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog is expected to visit Kyiv this week to discuss the situation at the power plant.

Residents of a Greek island pulled shipwrecked migrants to safety up steep cliffs in dramatic rescues after two boats sank in Greek waters, leaving at least 21 people dead and many still missing. The coast guard said 16 of the bodies were of young African women while one was a young man. They were all recovered near the eastern island of Lesbos after a dinghy carrying about 40 people sank. The second rescue effort was launched several hundred kilometers (miles) to the west, off the island of Kythira, where a sailboat struck rocks and sank. The bodies of at least four migrants were seen next to floating debris from the sailboat.

Leaders from around 44 countries are gathering to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and economic prosperity across the continent. The one country not invited to Thursday's summit is Russia. The summit involves the 27 EU member countries, aspiring partners in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, as well as neighbors like Britain and Turkey. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sa “this meeting is a way of looking for a new order without Russia." Critics claim the new forum is an attempt to put the brakes on European Union enlargement. Others fear it may become a talking shop, meeting once or twice a year but devoid of clout.

Police in Thailand say more than 30 people, primarily children, were killed in a shooting at a childcare center in the country's northeast. They say the gunman opened fire early in the afternoon in the center in the town of Nongbua Lamphu and killed 30 people before taking his own life. A spokesperson for a regional public affairs office says 26 deaths have been confirmed so far — 23 children, two teachers and one police officer. Further details are not immediately available.

Global stock markets have advanced after strong U.S. hiring dampened hopes the Federal Reserve might ease off plans for interest rate hikes and the OPEC oil production cartel agreed to shore up prices by cutting output. London, Frankfurt and Tokyo gained. Hong Kong declined. Chinese markets were closed for a holiday. Oil prices rose. Wall Street ended a two-day rally after a report showed U.S. employers added more jobs than expected in September. That gives ammunition to Fed officials who say more rate hikes are needed to cool inflation that is at a four-decade high.

Babies in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are dying in their first month of life at four times the rate before the war cut off access to most medical care for over 5 million people. That's according to the most sweeping study yet of how mothers and small children are succumbing to deprivation during the conflict. Almost two years have passed since the war cast the Tigray region into twilight, with basic services such as phone, internet and banking severed. United Nations-backed investigators last month said Ethiopia's government is using “starvation of civilians” as a weapon of war.