Latest news

The Israel-Palestine conflict
Hezbollah fired tens of rockets at northern Israel

Hezbollah says it fired tens of rockets at northern Israel on Thursday, AFP reports. It is the first attack since the group's top military commander, Fuad Shukr, was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut on Tuesday

The aircraft alarm went off during the attack. Israel says the air force destroyed the ramp from which the rockets were fired. There are no reports that anyone was injured.

According to Hezbollah, it was in response to an Israeli attack on the southern Lebanese village of Shama earlier on Thursday, in which four civilians were said to have been killed. 

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Reactions to the prisoner exchange
Analysis: Both Putin and Biden gain from the exchange but only one of them loses

The prisoner exchange with Russia is a real prestige victory for US President Joe Biden, who is already polishing his legacy. This is what both the BBC's Anthony Zurcher and Reuters' Matt Spetalnick and Andrea Shalal write in their analyses.

Possibly the goodwill also spills over to the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris - but so can the criticism. It has come quickly from pundits, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Several prisoner exchanges under Biden's administration have "upended decades of decisions that show you don't negotiate with tyrants to get Americans free," Obama administration foreign policy adviser Brett Bruen told Zurcher and Spetalnick.

Putin, for his part, they write, has better relations with Trump - but could not be sure that the offer would remain if there is a change of power in the White House in November.

That the exchange ends now shows that the communication channels between the countries are open, despite historically bad relations, writes Nathan Hodge for CNN.

He sees the deal as a victory for Putin, who has traded political prisoners for criminals and spies. They will be richly rewarded, if the Russian tradition holds. This sends a familiar message, Hodge writes:

"If you work for us, you will be rewarded and protected. And if you betray us, we will remember it for a long time.”

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The Russian invasion. The outside world's response
Zelenskyi: Wants to see Russia at the negotiating table

Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants representatives from Russia to attend a follow-up peace meeting that the Ukrainian president is working to bring about. In an interview on Tuesday, he said that it is not possible to achieve "meaningful results" without Russia at the negotiating table, writes AFP.

In June, a large number of countries met in Switzerland to discuss ways to peace in Ukraine. Neither Russia nor China participated that time.

Vladimir Putin has said he is open to negotiations, but has previously demanded that Ukrainian territory be handed over to Russia.

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The Wagner group in Africa
84 Wagner soldiers are said to have been killed in northern Mali

Tuareg separatist rebels in northern Mali say they killed 84 soldiers from the Russian Wagner group and 47 government soldiers in fighting on the Algerian border between July 25 and 27, AFP reports.

The death toll has not been confirmed by independent sources. In the past, both the Wagner group and the army have admitted that they suffered heavy losses in the region.

The Ukrainian intelligence service GUR has stated that it provided the Malian rebels with "necessary information" to attack the Wagner soldiers, according to The Guardian.

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Controversial preacher glances at small Scottish island

Should a small island in Scotland become an Islamic state governed by Sharia law?

Several media outlets have reported that such plans are being hatched by Sheikh Yasser al-Habib, a London-based Islamic preacher from Kuwait who has made a name for himself for hate speech against Sunni Muslims.

Through clips on Facebook and YouTube, the preacher's organization has been trying to raise £3.5 million to buy the island of Torsa in Scottish Argyll after the island was put up for sale.

The talks with the brokerage firm Savills have been reported to be well advanced - something that is now denied in an article in the BBC. You are not close to completing a deal with any buyer, the broker states.

Torsa is a small island, barely two kilometers long and one kilometer wide, which is reached by ferry across a small channel. There are remains of a castle, a farmhouse used as holiday accommodation and some cows.

The island is sold for 1.5 million pounds, equivalent to roughly 20 million kroner.

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The elections in Venezuela
Opposition leaders urge supporters to mobilize

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in Venezuela calls on her followers to mobilize, writes AFP. President Nicolás Maduro has held on to power after a disputed election result.

“Now it's up to all of us to claim the truth that we all know. Time to mobilize," writes Machado on X.

According to the election commission, Maduro received 51 percent of the vote, a statement that is questioned both in the country and internationally because the commission is controlled by people who are loyal to the president, writes TT.

The opposition has claimed that it emerged victorious from the election held on July 28.