Polish and Bulgarian leaders accused Moscow of using natural gas to blackmail their countries after Russia's state-controlled energy company said it would stop supplying the two European nations Wednesday.

The gas cutoff came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that "unfriendly" countries would need to start paying for gas in rubles, Russia's currency, which Bulgaria and Poland refused to do.

The European Union moved Wednesday to lift visa requirements for people from Qatar and Kuwait to make it easier for them to enter many European countries for stays of up to 90 days.

The EU's executive branch, the European Commission, said it recommended allowing people from the two Mideast countries who hold biometric passports to enter without visas for short stays.

Key figures on the American left, Barack Obama among them, have shed thousands of followers since Elon Musk's planned purchase of Twitter emerged, while numbers have soared for right-wing politicians. 

Musk, the world's richest man, struck a deal Monday to buy the U.S.-based social media platform for $44 billion.

As Egyptians mark the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, they are being treated to a blockbuster TV series that celebrates their army marshal turned president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. 

Fans hail "Al-Ikhtiyar 3" (The Choice 3) for enlightening the masses about Egypt's turbulent recent history. Critics see it as propaganda by a regime that rules with an iron fist.

Israeli police said Tuesday they have launched an investigation into a death threat made against the country's prime minister.

The police issued a statement saying that a letter containing a death threat and a live bullet was sent to Naftali Bennett's family. The police said the special crimes department and the Shin Bet internal security agency opened an investigation.

Billionaire Moshe Kantor has severed his longstanding ties to Tel Aviv University — joining a growing list of Russian Jewish oligarchs who have scaled back their philanthropic activities after coming under international sanctions for their ties to President Vladimir Putin.

The sanctions have shaken up the world of Jewish philanthropy, which relies heavily on deep-pocketed donors like Kantor, and forced a number of prominent organizations to abruptly end partnerships with their benefactors since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russia and the United States carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange on Wednesday, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, a senior U.S. official and the Russian foreign ministry said.

The surprise deal would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace, but it was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

Soon after his victory was announced, French President Emmanuel Macron took the stage to the sound of the European Union's anthem, the "Ode to Joy." The symbolism was strong: The 44-year-old centrist's election to a second term bolsters his standing as a senior player in Europe.

Macron is now expected to push for strengthening the 27-nation bloc and throw all his weight behind efforts to put an end to the war in Ukraine.

Running for parliament for the first time, independent Hania Zaatari walks down the meandering alleyways of the old souk in the port city of Sidon, telling impoverished workers and traders that fixing Lebanon's devastating economic crisis is her top priority.

"The economic plan needs to consider marginalized people like you and give them a chance for revival," she said to 70-year-old Ahmed Abu Dhahr, one of two carpenters remaining on a street that just two years ago boasted roughly 50.

The U.S. defense chief urged Ukraine's allies to "move at the speed of war" to get more and heavier weapons to Kyiv as Russian forces rained fire on eastern and southern Ukraine, and Russia cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.

For the second day, explosions rocked the separatist region of Trans-Dniester on Tuesday in neighboring Moldova, knocking out two powerful radio antennas. And a Russian missile hit a strategic railroad bridge linking Ukraine's Odesa port region to neighboring Romania, a NATO member, Ukrainian authorities said.