Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivering a rare Friday sermon in Arabic, defended this week's missile attack on Israel that deepened fears of a regional war and praised allies' defiance.
Speaking in front of tens of thousands at a mosque in the capital Tehran, Khamenei said armed groups in the Middle East "will not back down" even after a spate of Israeli killings of militant leaders.
The barring of independent election observers from Sunday's presidential vote in Tunisia reflects a broad crackdown on rights groups ahead of the ballot which President Kais Saied is widely expected to win, activists say.
The Tunisian electoral board, ISIE, says it will not allow observers from I Watch and Mourakiboun to monitor the vote, alleging they received suspicious foreign funds.
The two watchdogs have been monitoring Tunisian elections for fraud since the 2011 uprising that ousted former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
President Kais Saied, elected democratically before staging a power grab in 2021, sees himself as a man on a divine mission for Tunisia, but critics see him as ushering in a new authoritarian regime.
Clean-shaven, with an unwaveringly upright and slender figure, Saied has a stiff demeanour and no social media account.
He has given very few media interviews during his tenure, and limits his public comments to monologues in videos published on Facebook in which he speaks in stern classical Arabic, at times with perceptible anger.
Of all Nobel Peace Prizes, the one awarded 30 years ago to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is among the most controversial, featuring a laureate branded a terrorist, a jury member's resignation and a bloodbath.
On October 14, 1994, a year after the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Peace Prize was awarded to Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation; Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister; and his foreign minister Shimon Peres.
Conflict in the Middle East has weighed heavily on the US presidential campaign over the last year, and now -- as tensions escalate further -- it could sway November's election.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris finds herself treading on eggshells as she upholds President Joe Biden's support for key ally Israel, while running the risk of alienating Muslim and Arab American voters.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has pounced on the conflict to warn of a third world war -- an apocalyptic prognosis that he blames on the incumbent administration.
A decade after finding refuge in Lebanon from civil war in his native Syria, Ahmad Mustafa fled in the other direction this week from a new conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
"We're starting from scratch all over again," the 46-year-old said after crossing the border into Syria with his wife and three children.
Mustafa recounted escaping his hometown of Raqa in northern Syria after Islamic State group jihadists overran the city in 2013.
"We fled with just the clothes on our back," he said.
A year of conflict between Israel and Hamas has resulted in a "devastating impact on the economy" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, the IMF said Thursday, including a nearly 90 percent drop in Gaza's GDP.
"Preliminary official estimates indicate an 86 percent decline in GDP in the first half of 2024" in Gaza, said International Monetary Fund communications chief Julie Kozack.
She added that Gaza's "civilian population faces dire socioeconomic conditions, a humanitarian crisis and insufficient aid delivery."
Iran's missile barrage at Israel this week was meant as a warning that the Islamic republic can hit Israeli territory, but has instead exposed Iranian military limitations, analysts say.
In its second-ever direct attack on Israel, Iran launched some 200 missiles on Tuesday, with most of them -- but not all -- intercepted by Israeli air defences with help from allies.
World football's governing body FIFA on Thursday gave no verdict either way on a Palestinian request to suspend Israel, but instead launched an investigation into allegations of discrimination.
At FIFA's congress in Bangkok in May, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) called for its Israeli counterpart to be suspended and for Israeli teams to be banned from FIFA competitions.
The PFA claims that the Israel Football Association (IFA) has broken FIFA discrimination rules.
President Joe Biden said he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, in comments that sent oil prices spiking Thursday just a month before the US presidential election.
Biden told reporters at the White House however that he was not expecting Israel to launch any retaliation for Tehran's missile barrage on Israel before Thursday at least.
When asked by a reporter if he supported Israel striking Iran's oil facilities, Biden said "we're discussing that. I think that would be a little... anyway."
