A Quran burning and a string of requests to approve protests involving the destruction of more holy books have left Sweden torn between its commitment to free speech and its respect for religious minorities.

The clash of fundamental principles has complicated Sweden's desire to join NATO, an expansion that gained urgency after Russia's invasion of Ukraine but needs the approval of all current members. Turkey has blocked Swedish accession since last year, citing reasons including anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic protests in Stockholm.

Even in normal times Emmanuel Macron needed allies' help governing France.

To get some things done he worked with the traditional right. The center-left helped the French president accomplish others. The challenge was bigger than any a French leader had faced in more than two decades: He had to convince politicians across the country's national assembly to support even a minor domestic project.

Airstrikes targeting Palestinian militants in a crowded residential area. Armored bulldozers plowing through narrow streets, crushing cars and piling up debris. Protesters burning tires. A mounting death toll.

Israel's large-scale military raid into the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Monday had undeniable similarities with the second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s — a period that claimed thousands of lives.

Did mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have inside help from the military and political elite in his armed rebellion that rattled Russia?

The first U.N. independent investigator to visit the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay has said the 30 men held there are subject "to ongoing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law."

The investigator, Irish law professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, said at a news conference releasing her 23-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Council that the 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that killed nearly 3,000 people were "crimes against humanity." But she said the U.S. use of torture and rendition against alleged perpetrators and their associates in the years right after the attacks violated international human rights law — and in many cases deprived the victims and survivors of justice because information obtained by torture cannot be used at trials.

The head of the private military contractor Wagner called Friday for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia's defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately by opening a criminal investigation into Yevgeny Prigozhin.

He has previously bashed the country's military leadership for failures in the war in Ukraine, and is known for his long-running feud with the Defense Ministry.

The video was shocking — not just for what it showed but also for what was said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington in June was expected to reduce India's dependence on Moscow for arms, economic ties and technology as New Delhi and Washington try to strengthen the Quad partnership, which also includes Japan and Australia, to contain growing aggression from China.

India considers Russia a time-tested ally from the Cold War era with key cooperation in defense, oil, nuclear energy and space exploration. But that partnership has become fraught since Moscow started developing closer ties with India's main rival, China, because of the war against Ukraine.

A growing number of aircraft and ships from the U.S. and Canada searched Tuesday for a submersible vessel carrying five people that disappeared on its way to the wreckage of the Titanic.

The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the search for the small craft, named Titan, in a remote area of the North Atlantic Ocean. OceanGate Expeditions, an undersea exploration company, has been chronicling the Titanic's decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.

Visitors to Jordan this month noticed a new addition to the royal portraits over highways and hospitals. The 28-year-old Crown Prince Hussein and his glamorous Saudi bride, Rajwa Alseif, now beam down at motorists stuck in Amman traffic.

Their royal wedding represented the pinnacle of the monarchy's efforts to establish Hussein as the face of Jordan's next generation — a future king who can modernize the country, slash the red tape and set loose the talents of its bulging young population. Of nearly 10 million people in Jordan, almost two-thirds are under 30.