BIG Wrap

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russia has condemned a US strike on a boat allegedly carrying illegal drugs off the coast of Venezuela that killed four people on Friday and warned of potential escalation in the entire Caribbean region. In a phone call to his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the attack, which took place in international waters. “The ministers expressed serious concern about Washington’s escalating actions in the Caribbean Sea that...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Billionaire Andrej Babis’s populist ANO party has taken a commanding lead in the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election, but is on track to fall short of a majority. With ballots from more than 97 percent of polling stations counted on Saturday, ANO had 35 percent of the vote, according to the Czech Statistical Office. Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s centre-right Spolu (Together) alliance trailed with 23 percent. Shortly after the preliminary results were announced,...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Hamas says that it accepts several parts of US President Donald Trump’s plan for a ceasefire in Israel’s nearly two-year war on Gaza, but that some elements require further negotiations. Hamas handed over its response to Trump’s 20-point plan for a ceasefire on Friday, an informed source told Al Jazeera, hours after Trump gave the group until Sunday to respond to the proposal. In a statement, the Palestinian group announced that it...

(BBC News) The southern Gaza city of Khan Younis has witnessed one of the fiercest internal confrontations since the war began, between a Hamas security force and gunmen from the al-Mujaida clan – one of the largest families in the south. According to Hamas, its forces raided the neighbourhood to detain individuals accused of collaborating with Israel. Local accounts, however, described an armed assault by about 50 men riding in five pickup trucks, armed with assault...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged a “significant” response to “Europe’s militarization” and says the hysteria around his country potentially attacking NATO is “nonsense”. “They can’t believe what they’re saying, that Russia is going to attack NATO,” he said on Thursday at a foreign policy forum in the southern resort city of Sochi. “They’re either incredibly incompetent if they truly believe it because it’s impossible to believe this nonsense, or they’re...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) President Donald Trump has issued an executive order in which the United States pledges to guarantee Qatar’s security – including retaliatory military action – if the country were to come under attack again, in the wake of Israel’s unprecedented air strikes on the country last month that drew regional and global outrage. Israel said that the attack targeted Hamas leaders who were in the capital, Doha, discussing a US ceasefire proposal...

(BBC News) A sunscreen scandal in Australia is continuing to grow, with 18 products now pulled from shelves in the skin-cancer hotspot over safety concerns. Analysis by a consumer advocacy group in June found several popular and expensive sunscreens did not provide the protection claimed by their makers. One product, Ultra Violette's Lean Screen Skinscreen, claims to offer a skin protection factor (SPF) of 50+ but instead returned a result of SPF 4 and was voluntarily...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Hamas has issued what it calls a “warning” that the lives of two captives held in Gaza City are in danger as Israeli tanks push deeper inside several neighbourhoods of the besieged urban centre, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are trapped by Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment. The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian group, said on Sunday that contact has been lost with fighters holding Omri Miran and...

(BBC News) A Russian aerial bombardment that lasted more than 12 hours has killed at least four people and injured at least 70 others in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the deaths all occurred in the capital, Kyiv, where many of the projectiles were aimed, and the victims included a 12-year-old girl. The barrage – involving nearly 600 drones and several dozen missiles aimed at seven regions of Ukraine – is one of the heaviest in...

(BBC News) President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of US troops to Portland, Oregon, authorizing use of "full force" if needed, to suppress protests targeting immigration detention centres. Trump said he was "directing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to provide all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland." He claimed that the move would help protect "any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists," adding on Truth Social: "I...