Two explosions were heard in central Damascus on Tuesday as French President Emmanuel Macron visited the Syrian capital, AFP journalists said, with witnesses reporting smoke rising near a high-end hotel where the leader spent the night.

At least one blast was heard before ambulances rushed to the scene, while Macron, the first Western European leader to visit Syria since the 2024 fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, held talks with Syrian counterpart Ahmad al-Sharaa at the presidential palace.

Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti said Sunday's painful World Cup last-16 exit at the hands of Norway should be used as "fuel" for the future as he insisted their disappointing tournament is "the start of a new cycle".

Microsoft said Monday it was eliminating about 4,800 jobs -- roughly two percent of its global workforce -- in a sweeping restructuring concentrated in its Xbox gaming divisions.

U.S. President Donald Trump's phone call to FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to have the red card for the co-hosts star striker Folarin Balogun reviewed is the latest instance of political interference in the World Cup.

Balogun is free to play later on Monday in the last-16 match with Belgium after world football's governing body said the ban will be suspended for a year.

NATO allies will unveil billions in new contracts to bolster their ability to "defer and defend", Secretary General Mark Rutte said Monday on the eve of the military alliance's summit.

Britain on Monday unveiled sanctions against seven Russian scientists and two research labs said to have helped develop chemical weapons used in two attacks.

A series of attacks by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces near the western border with Chad have razed multiple villages and displaced thousands of people, according to two survivors and the United Nations.

The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, and has been accused by the UN of committing repeated massacres against Darfur's non-Arab ethnic groups, including the Zaghawa who inhabit the western villages of North Darfur state.

Moroccan authorities said on Monday they had arrested 10 people, including a minor, involved in foiled "terrorist plots" across several cities.

The kingdom's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) said in a statement carried by state news agency MAP that the suspects were linked to the Islamic State group (IS) in the Sahel region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged the United States not to sell its advanced F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, arguing it would "upset the power balance" in the region.

"I don't think they should be given F-35s or the engines for their fighter jets, because that'll upset the power balance in the Middle East which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also by, I think, by America's posture in the Middle East," Netanyahu told Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends."

President Joseph Aoun said Monday that Israel's occupation of the south was preventing the Lebanese army's deployment to the area, as the two sides prepare to implement a deal involving the deployment and gradual Israeli withdrawal.

According to a statement from his office, Aoun emphasized the need to pressure Israel to withdraw its forces "because the persistence of the occupation undermines the legitimacy of the (Lebanese) state and prevents the army from deploying and the laying of the foundations for achieving a just and lasting peace".