Bangladesh's next leader Muhammad Yunus arrived home Thursday from an overseas trip and will take office later in the day, as he looks to restore calm and rebuild the country following an uprising that ended the 15-year, increasingly autocratic rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Yunus landed at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday afternoon and was welcomed by the country's military chief, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, who was flanked by navy and air force heads.

Yahya Sinwar's appointment as the top leader of Hamas formalizes a role he assumed in the early hours of Oct. 7, when the surprise attack into Israel that he helped mastermind ushered in the bloodiest chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He is seen as a hard-liner with closer ties to Hamas' armed wing than his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an explosion in Iran's capital last month that was widely blamed on Israel and could spark an all-out regional war.

By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University

When the longtime political chief of Hamas was assassinated in late July 2024, it didn't just leave the entire Middle East on edge. It also created a political headache in Qatar.

As tensions between Israel and Iran escalate, Egypt has issued a safety notice warning all of its carriers to avoid Iranian air space for a three-hour window early Thursday.

A NOTAM, or notice to air missions, that was posted for pilots Wednesday states that all Egyptian carriers should avoid Tehran’s Flight Information Region and that "no flight plan will be accepted overflying such territory" between 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. GMT Thursday morning.

An Israeli drone targeted Thursday a car between the southern towns of al-Jebbayn and Yarine, wounding three people.

Hezbollah, for its part, targeted al-Malkia with artillery shells and a group of soldiers in the al-Marj post with a suicide drone.

Pushing and shoving in one race on the track. A cameraman walking into the action in another. Leg cramps and untimely misses in the field.

The often-routine qualifying rounds at Olympic track and field took some strange turns Wednesday with a four-man pileup in one men's 5,000-meter heat, a cameraman who walked into the other and drama in the high jump that left the defending co-champions in dire straits.

Sam Welsford had just dismounted from his space-age bike, the one that costs about as much as a Range Rover, and looked at the record time his teammates from Australia had just set in the men's pursuit at the Paris Olympics.

"I reckon," Welsford said with a charmed smile, "we'll have to go faster for gold."

The New York Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the main slate for its 62nd edition, with selections including Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning "Anora," Pedro Almodóvar's "The Room Next Door" and Mati Diop's "Dahomey."

Thirty-three features will make up the central lineup of the annual festival presented by Film at Lincoln Center. The main slate is particularly international this year, with films hailing from 24 countries, and including 19 directors making their debut in the festival's most prestigious section.

It's Taylor Swift's world, and the MTV Video Music Award nominations are the latest proof.

"The Tortured Poets Department" singer once again tops the VMA noms with 10 — eight for her "Fortnight" music video and nods in the artist of the year and best pop categories. She's followed by her "Fortnight" collaborator Post Malone, who is nominated along with Swift eight times and earned his ninth nom for his country hit "I Had Some Help," featuring Morgan Wallen.

Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose are now divorced.

The dissolution of their seven-month marriage was finalized Monday by a Williamson County judge in Tennessee three months after Cyrus filed for divorce.