Forest fires, Hezbollah attack, and Erdogan's threat highlight global turmoil

It happened while you were sleeping. Here is what global agencies reported overnight from Sunday to Monday.

• Forest fires in the western United States and Canada have caused millions of people to be under air quality alerts due to contaminated smoke. Thousands of firefighters are battling the flames. The National Weather Service issued a "red flag" warning on Sunday due to strong winds, low humidity, drought, and the threat of lightning. The warning applies to Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and California.

• Israel's security cabinet authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Galant to determine the timing and type of response to Saturday's Hezbollah attack on the Golan Heights, which killed 12 Druze children and teenagers, the Israeli prime minister's office reported Sunday evening.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Ankara might consider using military force against Israel if necessary, citing Turkey's military interventions in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turkish news agency Bianet reported Sunday.

• Justice Minister Constant Mutamba reported that at least 7,000 prisoners will be conditionally released from the central Makala prison in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, due to overcrowding.

• The Balkan edition of Al Jazeera television reported that on Sunday, a protest against the planned opening of a lithium mine in the region was organized in the town of Bogatić in western Serbia. This is the latest demonstration by opponents of exploiting this resource in the past week.