Ukraine’s government has denied a Wall Street Journal report this week that Kyiv approved the plan to blow up the Russian-owned Nord Stream pipelines in 2022. According to the newspaper, a crew of Ukrainian civilians and active-duty soldiers used a rented yacht to reach the pipelines, which deliver Russian natural gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, and used explosives to sever three of the four pipelines.

The World Health Organization has declared mpox to be a global public health emergency. The viral disease, formerly known as monkeypox, spreads through close physical contact and can cause fevers, rashes and extremely painful lesions. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also declared a public health emergency over mpox earlier this week after logging over 15,000 cases. Scientists say this strain of mpox has a fatality rate of around 5% in adults and double that in children.

As Donald Trump tries to distance his campaign from Project 2025, those behind the right-wing policy blueprint to remake the U.S. government continue to brag in private about their close ties to the Republican presidential nominee and how they intend to push a radical right-wing agenda in a second Trump administration. In July, Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought met with two people he believed to be relatives of a wealthy conservative donor interested in funding the effort.

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the official death toll, though the true casualty figure is likely far higher with thousands of the dead unaccounted for. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have raided towns and villages across the occupied West Bank, and settlers under military protection have repeatedly stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in recent days.

Up to 200 Rohingya Muslims were killed in drone strikes last week in Burma as they attempted to flee to Bangladesh. This comes amid intensifying conflict between the military junta and the Arakan Army, a rebel armed group. Human Rights Watch says the military and the Arakan Army have both committed extrajudicial killings, unlawful recruitment for combat, and widespread arson against Rohingya civilians.

Eight years after the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia between government forces and guerrillas that was meant to end a half-century of conflict, around 5 million Colombians remain internally displaced and a growing number of people live in areas controlled by armed groups. The ongoing violence in the country has pushed many to flee, often by going through the treacherous Darién Gap between Colombia and neighboring Panama.

Health officials in Gaza said Thursday that the official death toll from Israel’s 10-month war has topped 40,000, though that is believed to be a vast undercount of the true figure. The grim milestone was reached just days after the Biden administration greenlit $20 billion in additional weapons sales to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter jets, tank ammunition, mortar rounds, tactical vehicles and advanced air-to-air missiles. The U.S.