In a tweet yesterday afternoon US President Donald Trump congratulated Russia and Ukraine on a prisoner swap that happened earlier the same day. “Russia and Ukraine just swapped large numbers of prisoners. Very good news, perhaps a first giant step to peace. Congratulations to both countries!”, he wrote.

Pope Francis starts a trip to the African continent on Wednesday, including Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius, three countries heavily threatened by climate change. Protecting the environment and the dangers of climate change have been key issues for Pope Francis, who published an encyclical or "laudato si" on the topic back in 2015, and said in June that the Church was "fully committed to do its part" to help stop climate change, dpa reported.

The executive committee of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party on Monday unanimously agreed to send former premier and party member Ahmet Davutoglu to a disciplinary board for dismissal, news wires reported.

Political novice and presidential protege Oleksiy Honcharuk was appointed as Ukraine’s prime minister on Thursday, claiming that economic reforms aimed at accelerating growth would be the focus of his premiership.

Hundreds of protests have broken out in Indian-administered Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the region of its autonomy and imposed a military clampdown more than three weeks ago, a senior government official has told the AFP news agency.

Brazil rejected aid from G7 countries to fight wildfires in the Amazon, with a top official telling French President Emmanuel Macron to take care of "his home and his colonies."

Iran will not talk to the United States until all sanctions imposed on Tehran are lifted, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump said he would meet his Iranian counterpart to try to end a nuclear standoff.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain is at the center of what may be the first-ever crime committed in space. On Friday, The New York Times reported that McClain’s estranged wife, Summer Worden, discovered that someone had improperly accessed her bank account while McClain was on a sixth-month mission aboard the International Space Station - and the computer network that person used was registered to NASA.

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived on Sunday in Biarritz, where leaders of the G7 group of nations are meeting, news wires reported. Flight tracking website flightradar24.com showed an Iranian government jet landed at Biarritz’s airport, which has been closed for the three-day summit.

A third British warship is heading to the Gulf, the Royal Navy announced on Saturday. Britain has already sent the HMS Kent to cover for frigate HMS Montrose while it undergoes maintenance in nearby Bahrain, and is now redirecting the Type 45 destroyer HMS Defender from its mission to the Pacific. "Wherever the red ensign flies around the world, the UK stands by to protect freedom of navigation whenever is it tested," Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said, cited by AFP.