The U.S. military's pier to get humanitarian aid into Gaza has come to an end after a series of problems.

The pier was pulled from the Gaza shore on June 28 due to rough seas, and bad weather prevented troops from reinstalling it. Now, it's being dismantled and brought home.

A Turkish parliamentary commission has begun a tense debate on a bill to manage the country's large stray dog population that animal advocates fear could result in the widespread killing of the animals.

The legislation, submitted to parliament Wednesday by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, is pitting groups advocating for safer streets free of the feral dogs against animal rights activists who are demanding the withdrawal of the bill.

Nabila Hamada gave birth to twin boys in Gaza early in the war, in a hospital reeking of decaying bodies and full of displaced people. When Israeli forces threatened the hospital, she and her husband fled with only one of the babies, as medical staff said the other was too weak to leave. Soon after, Israeli forces raided the hospital, Gaza's largest, and she never saw the boy again.

The trauma of losing one twin left the 40-year-old Hamada so scared of losing the other that she became frozen and ill-equipped to deal with the daily burden of survival.

Israel's far-right national security minister visited Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site on Thursday, threatening to disrupt Gaza cease-fire talks.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader, said he had gone up to the contested Jerusalem hilltop compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray for the return of the hostages "but without a reckless deal, without surrendering."

Another wave of severe storms pummeled a wide swath of the United States and Canada, leading to flash floods and water rescues Wednesday in the Ozark Mountains, dropping a tornado that ravaged a community in upstate New York and stranding drivers in high water around Toronto.

The relentless series of storms has caused deaths or damage from the Plains to New England this week. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost power and air conditioning during days of sweltering heat.

A heat wave across southern Europe forced authorities in Greece to close the Acropolis Wednesday for several hours and two firefighters died while putting out a fire in the Basilicata region in southern Italy, Italian authorities said.

Italy added Palermo, Sicily, to the list of 13 cities in the country with a severe heat warning. Elderly people in the city of Verona were urged to stay indoors, while sprinklers were set up to cool passersby.

In a relative rarity for presidential elections, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have long records on foreign policy and clearly stated positions on many of the world's hot spots.

Trump's allies at the Republican National Convention are expected to argue that Biden has weakened America's standing abroad and permitted the outbreak of conflicts between Russia and Ukraine as well as the Israelis and Palestinians. Biden, a Democrat who ran four years ago on a message of shoring up America's foreign alliances and reversing Trump policies, argues that he has restored U.S. standing abroad.

Shiite Muslims Wednesday in Lebanon and Iraq commemorated Ashoura, marking the 7th-century death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein, that gave birth to their faith, while paying tribute to Palestinians as the Israel-Hamas war entered its 10th month and tensions heightened between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.

The rift between Islam's two main sects deepened after Sunnis killed Imam Hussein in battle in the Iraqi city of Karbala, south of Baghdad. It continues to this day to play a key role in shaping the identity of Shiites, who represent over 10% of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims.

An Israeli delegation has arrived in Egypt to continue cease-fire talks as Israel and Hamas consider the latest proposal, three Egyptian airport officials said.

International mediators continue to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.

Russia’s top diplomat has said that Hezbollah, its main backer Iran, and Lebanon’s government do not want “a full-blown war – and there’s a suspicion that some circles in Israel are trying to achieve just that.”

Sergey Lavrov told a U.N. news conference Wednesday that Russia is doing “everything possible to calm tensions.” He expressed hope that Western nations make every effort to ensure Israel won’t act on what he says U.S. and European analysts are calling Israel’s “provocative mindsets.”