Rasmus Paludan, a politician in Sweden who has failed to gather enough signatures to run in parliamentary elections in September, has gained notoriety by visiting Muslim neighborhoods during Ramadan to burn copies of the Qur’an.

Turkey this week hosted another round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. As tragic as the Ukraine war is, it has become an opportunity for Ankara to improve its relations with Europe after a long period of tension.

Turkey has a working relationship with the EU, the US and NATO, but there are also points of contention between them. As tension rises over Ukraine, the question is whether Ankara can capitalize on it to obtain from those three allies what it has been unable to in the past.

Qatar is reported to be trying to arrange a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, signaling a potential rapprochement. Saudi-Turkish coordination is essential to break the status quo in Syria and push for a sustainable solution.

The countdown to Aug. 4, the anniversary of the port explosion that devastated Beirut and killed more than 200 people, has begun.

Though the US and Iran want to go back to the nuclear deal, they both have suspicions, and negotiations have now been postponed until mid-August, after Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi takes office.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a statement about the Golan Heights that upset Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reacted to what was portrayed as a refraining from recognizing Israel sovereignty over Golan.