An isolated village in southern Lebanon sat empty on a hot day in the middle of August. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and the village, Kfar Kila, should have been filled with the bustle of cars driving through the streets and people shopping at local stores. For children, it was supposed to be their summer vacation from school, but no civilians walked the streets, save members of Hezbollah, who drove past us on scooters, casting a watchful eye on us as we took pictures of destroyed residential b...

MARJAAYOUN, Lebanon—For a few hours it looked like war, a real war that could escalate into the all-out Middle Eastern conflict the world has been dreading.Early Sunday morning, around a hundred Israeli warplanes launched missile strikes in what it called preemptive action to take out Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon. Shortly afterward, the Iranian-backed militia group launched hundreds of drones and missiles, including Katyusha rockets, into northern Israel and the Golan Heights i...

Tatiana Usmanova burst into tears when Andrey Pivovarov, her husband, called her and said he had been included in the Russian prisoner exchange.Ms Usmanova was at her home in Moscow, where she has lived throughout her husband’s last three years serving in a Russian penal colony. When she heard the news, she immediately booked flights to Turkey and then to Germany, chasing after her husband as he was transported to freedom.Mr Pivovarov, 42, is the head of the Russian opposition group Open Russia,...

As he was released from his Russian jail cell, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich had a dazzling parting shot for Vladimir Putin.Prison regulations required him to write a letter to Putin requesting clemency as one last formality. He was happy to do so, relying on the past 16 months he had spent honing his Russian language skills in custody.A journalist to the last moment of his confinement, he scribbled a cheeky proposal at the bottom of the form: would Putin be willing to sit down f...

Hopes of a major prisoner swap between Russia and the West have risen after a series of mysterious inmate movements.At least nine high-profile Western prisoners have reportedly been moved from their cells in recent days, prompting speculation that Vladimir Putin has agreed to swap them for Russians held in the West.Sources in Ukraine suggested that Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British opposition activist, and Paul Whelan, a former US marine, could be among those being released from Russian cus...

YEREVAN, Armenia—Teachers in Russia are increasingly being used as a tool to push pro-Kremlin propaganda on their students as the war in Ukraine enters its third year.Amongst biology and math lessons, these teachers are forced to introduce discussions of “important things” that all Russians should know, which just so happen to include pushing pro-war sentiment onto their students and educating young minds on Russian nationalism.Any public opposition could result in the teachers being fired or im...

Desperate Palestinians are creating GoFundMe accounts to ensure their families in Gaza find a safe way out of the region. Many are asking for tens of thousands of dollars from strangers, a last resort to get names on the Egyptian border-crossing list that allows 150 people per day to leave Gaza. Getting your name on the list is the only way out of Gaza, and there is no mercy shown for the injured, starving, or those fighting off diseases. Multiple people The Daily Beast spoke with said it cost

Russia’s war in Ukraine has dominated the world’s attention since it began on Feb. 24, 2022. Western governments and journalists alike provided a constant flow of information and updates as the war unfolded, documenting every war crime, military gain, and loss. Leaders kept alive the unwavering support for Kyiv’s fight for its freedom. That all changed on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched its brutal attack on Israel. The world’s focus switched in an instant to a war that grows more dire with each pass

GORIS, Armenia—Two ethnic Armenian soldiers who survived the blitzkrieg onslaught against Nagorno-Karabakh told The Daily Beast they witnessed apparent war crimes committed against civilians who lived in the disputed enclave. Azerbaijan conducted the assault on Nagorno-Karabakh last week despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers who had been defending the residents of the border region. It took only two days for Azerbaijan to take control of the enclave after the assault began on Sept. 19. A

LACHIN CORRIDOR—Scores of refugees are fleeing the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the aftermath of a massive Azerbaijani offensive that forced the ethnic Armenian majority to give up control of the war-stricken enclave last week. In a first since the mass exodus began on Sunday, The Daily Beast has gained exclusive access to the Lachin Corridor, the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh—an internationally recognized region of Azerbaijan with an ethnically Armenian population—to Armenia. R

Hundreds of wildfires have plagued Greece over the summer, adding to a list of European countries set ablaze during record-breaking late summer heat waves as global temperatures continue to rise. Evros, in the North-East region of Greece, sits along the most popular route for migrants crossing the River Evros from Turkey to the European Union. Reports surfaced on August 22 that 18 burned bodies believed to be migrants were discovered near the Evros capital city, Alexandroupolis. While the count