The day after last month's deadly suicide attack on a church outside Syria's capital, hundreds of Christians marched in Damascus chanting against foreign fighters and calling for them to leave the country.

The June 22 attack on the Mar Elias church, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens, was the latest alarm for religious minorities who say they have suffered one blow after another since President Bashar Assad was removed from power in December.

The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group renewed Wednesday a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state.

In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber's YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, declared that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps.

On a grass field slick with olive oil and steeped in tradition, hundreds of boys as young as 11 joined the ranks of Turkey's most time-honored sporting event: the annual Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Championship.

Held every summer in the northwestern city of Edirne, the event is said to date back to the 14th century as a way of keeping the Ottoman Empire's fighting men fit and ready for battle.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been nominated again for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump on Monday that he recommended him for the prestigious award, handing the American leader the letter he said he sent the Nobel committee.

Five Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel's military said Tuesday, while health officials in the Palestinian territory said that 51 people were killed in Israeli strikes.

The bloodshed came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump about a ceasefire plan to pause the Gaza fighting. While there was no announcement of a breakthrough, there were signs of progress toward a deal.

Rescuers launched a search Wednesday for survivors of a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that came under attack from Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, authorities said. At least three mariners were killed and two were wounded.

The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C follows the Iranian-backed Houthis attacking another vessel, the bulk carrier Magic Seas, on Sunday in the Red Sea, which they subsequently sank. The assaults are the first Houthi attacks on shipping since late 2024 in the waterway that had begun to see more ships pass through in recent weeks.

The Israeli army launched a series of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon on Sunday evening, including in the area around the eastern city of Baalbek and in Iqlim al-Tuffah, a mountainous region overlooking large parts of southern Lebanon.

"We'll see what happens. We're going to know over the next 24 hours," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire.

Hamas said Friday that it was holding discussions with leaders of other Palestinian factions to discuss a ceasefire proposal presented to it by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas said it will give its final response to mediators after the discussions have concluded.

Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid.

Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 killings within the span of a month in Gaza near humanitarian convoys and as Palestinians try to reach aid at distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization since it first began operations in late May.

Lifelong soccer fan Victor Dumois expressed concern about the United States co-hosting the 2026 World Cup after attending a recent Club World Cup match in Miami.

"I think after the Copa America, a weird phenomenon has occurred here," said Dumois, who is from Spain. "There's people that don't like the World Cup being in the United States."