Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has selected Stuttgart's Angelo Stiller to his first squad since the retirements of Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer and İlkay Gündoğan.

Stiller, a 23-year-old midfielder who helped Stuttgart to its best ever points total in the Bundesliga last season, is the only new face in the squad for Nations League games against Hungary and the Netherlands.

Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris inaugurated the 2024 Paralympics on Wednesday with a nearly four-hour-long opening ceremony in the heart of the city.

Against the backdrop of a setting sun, thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysées avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris where French President Emmanuel Macron officially declared the Paralympic Games open.

French President Emmanuel Macron starts a two-day state visit to Serbia on Thursday with the focus on the possible sale of 12 Rafale multi-purpose fighter jets to the country, which has maintained close ties to Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine.

Macron is to meet populist President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Thursday evening, when the deal reportedly worth 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) is expected to be announced.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will sit down Thursday for their first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.

The interview with CNN's Dana Bash will give Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments, while also giving her a fresh platform to define her campaign and test her political mettle ahead of an upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump set for Sept. 10. But it also carries risk as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup following Joe Biden's exit and last week's Democratic National Convention.

Russia conducted a heavy aerial attack on Ukraine for the third time in four days Thursday, again launching missiles and scores of drones that mostly were intercepted, Ukraine's air force said.

Russian forces fired five missiles and 74 Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets, an air force statement said. Air defenses stopped two missiles and 60 drones, and 14 other drones presumably fell before reaching their target, it said.

Global shares traded mixed Thursday as market attention turned to upcoming data on the U.S. economy after Nvidia reported its financial results.

France's CAC 40 edged up 0.4% in early trading to 7,607.05. Germany's DAX was little changed, inching up less than 0.1% to 18,798.50. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2% to 8,361.47. U.S. shares were set to drift mostly higher with Dow futures up 0.4% at 41,345.00. S&P 500 futures stood virtually unchanged at 5,608.50.

Smoke from wildfires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest Wednesday was causing people in the region to cough, burning their throats and reddening their eyes.

Large swaths of the country have been draped in smoke in recent days, resulting from fires raging across the Amazon, Cerrado savannah, Pantanal wetland and the state of Sao Paulo.

A strong storm lashed southern Japan with torrential rain and strong winds Thursday, causing at least three deaths as it started a crawl up the length of the archipelago and raised concerns of flooding, landslides and extensive damage.

Tropical storm Shanshan made landfall Thursday morning as a powerful typhoon on the southern island of Kyushu and then gradually lost strength, though it was still forecast to bring strong winds, high waves and significant rainfall to most of the country, particularly on Kyushu.

Transport ministers from Turkey, Iraq, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are meeting in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss a multibillion-dollar regional transportation project designed to ease the movement of goods from Asia to Europe through Iraq.

The proposed $20 billion Development Road Project is designed to facilitate the transport of goods from the Gulf to Europe via the Grand Faw Port in Basra in southern Iraq. The port would be linked to Turkey and subsequently to Europe through an extensive network of railways and highways.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Thursday he will urge the bloc's 27 member states Thursday to back sanctions on Israeli ministers over their remarks about the war in Gaza.

“Some Israeli ministers have been launching hateful messages, unacceptable hateful messages, against the Palestinians and proposing things that go clearly against international law and is an incitation to commit more crimes,” Borrell said.