The unofficial end of summer is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere—did you make sure to follow along with this week’s headlines while sipping your first pumpkin spice latte of the season?
1. On Saturday, Russian national Pavel Durov was arrested in France. Which messaging app did he found?
The fallout of the arrest goes beyond Durov and even Telegram, spanning geopolitical interests and debates around social media regulation, FP’s Rishi Iyengar reports.
2. Israel launched a preemptive strike against roughly how many Hezbollah launch sites in southern Lebanon on Sunday?
Hezbollah has many supporters throughout Lebanon, making it unlikely that Israel could definitively defeat the organization, FP’s Anchal Vohra wrote last week.
3. Separatists killed dozens of people in which Pakistani province late Sunday into early Monday?
The Balochistan Liberation Army, an insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attacks, FP’s Michael Kugelman writes in South Asia Brief.
4. Libya’s eastern government halted all oil production and exports on Monday, causing global oil prices to rise by about how much?
The decision came as the eastern administration, headed by warlord Khalifa Haftar, has attempted to wrest control of Libya’s central bank and crude oil revenues from the U.N.-recognized Tripoli-based government, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi writes in Africa Brief.
5. On Tuesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador put relations with the U.S. and Canadian embassies in Mexico “on pause” after the ambassadors did what?
López Obrador’s proposed changes for his final month as president include reforms to the country’s electoral process and Mexico’s Congress, Lillian Perlmutter writes.
6. Which high-ranking U.S. official on Tuesday kicked off a three-day trip to China?
A senior White House official told reporters that the purpose of the trip was to clear up perceptions around competition between the United States and China, FP’s Lili Pike writes in China Brief.
7. A Russian missile hit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown on Wednesday, striking civilian infrastructure and wounding eight. Which city was struck?
The attack came amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive into the Russian region of Kursk. While Kyiv’s forces have made advances, this gain does not necessarily put Ukraine in a better endgame position, FP’s Stephen M. Walt argues.
8. A Hong Kong court on Thursday convicted two former editors of a shuttered news outlet of what?
The sedition trial was the first involving a Hong Kong media organization since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, FP’s Alexandra Sharp writes in World Brief.
9. Manette Baillie celebrated her birthday on Sunday by breaking the record for the United Kingdom’s oldest skydiver. What age did she turn?
Baillie was once married to a military paratrooper and said she was inspired to try skydiving after hearing that a friend’s 85-year-old father had done it, the Guardian reports.
10. The Spanish town of Buñol celebrated an annual festival on Wednesday with an hourlong food fight featuring which overripe fruit?
The event originated in 1945 and was briefly banned in the 1950s during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, Reuters reports.
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