For Hamed al-Rafidain, a Saudi human resources worker, an electric vehicle offers welcome savings, especially since his other car is a fuel-guzzling four-wheel drive favoured by motorists in the desert kingdom.
The 39-year-old is part of a small but growing EV consumer base in Saudi Arabia, which hopes to become a hub for the technology as it seeks to diversify its economy away from oil.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Gaza ceasefire demonstrators Wednesday and called for a global alliance against the Iranian regime he accuses of funding them, as he addressed a US Congress divided by the war.
Washington has become increasingly alarmed by the humanitarian toll of Israel's nine-month campaign in the narrow coastal territory, and protests in Israel and the United States have been ratcheting up pressure on Netanyahu.
Kamala Harris's outspoken stance on the Gaza war hints at a possible shift from Joe Biden's Israel policy as she eyes the Democratic presidential nomination -- as Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to find out this week.
The US vice president will be conspicuously absent from the Israeli leader's address to the US Congress on Wednesday, in what analysts said was a clear signal about her concerns over civilian casualties in Gaza.
The arrest on Tuesday of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, by police acting on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs, marks a success for the ICC, which has been struggling for almost 23 years against a lack of recognition and enforcement power.
Backed by 125 member states, the jurisdiction seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world's gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
The wheels of international justice grind slowly, as evidenced by the court's low conviction rate.
Israel swiftly condemned an agreement brokered by China on Tuesday that would bring Hamas into a "national reconciliation government" for post-war Gaza.
The diplomatic spat came as Israel bombarded Gaza, including the southern city of Khan Yunis, where it had ordered a partial evacuation of civilians.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz insisted that "Hamas rule will be crushed" and accused Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose Fatah faction signed the deal, of embracing the group whose October 7 attacks triggered the war.
Palestinian officials said an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday killed five people, including a woman and her daughter, while the Israeli military said it "eliminated" a Hamas commander.
During the pre-dawn operation in Tulkarem refugee camp, Israeli drones struck and killed the head of Hamas's military wing in Tulkarem, Ashraf Nafea, the military said in a statement.
"Ashraf was responsible for manufacturing and embedding explosives intended to attack IDF (Israeli) soldiers," it said.
Hamas announced Tuesday it had signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organisations including rivals Fatah to work together for "national unity", with China describing it as a deal to rule Gaza together once the war ends.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzuk, Fatah envoy Mahmud al-Aloul and emissaries from 12 other Palestinian groups, said they had agreed to set up an "interim national reconciliation government" to govern post-war Gaza.
In Tunisia's seaside town of Hammamet, bulldozers diligently shovel sand from a nearby desert onto a popular beach in an attempt to stop it from disappearing due to erosion.
"This beach is the postcard image of Hammamet," said environmentalist Chiheb Ben Fredj peering nostalgically at the town's iconic Yasmine beach.
"It has been seared in our minds since our childhood," he added, as labourers worked to restore the central Tunisian waterfront to its former sandy glory.
Britain accused Israel of allowing its troops to run "out of control" during a huge military operation in the occupied West Bank two decades ago, UK government archives showed Tuesday.
The newly-released files highlight Western concern over the Palestinian death toll during Operation Defensive Shield launched by then-Israeli premier Ariel Sharon in March 2002.
The comments are similar to concerns expressed by some Western allies over Israel's current military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington to speak at the United States Congress this week in a context of tense relations between the two countries over the Gaza war.
His visit comes just after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
