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Biden faces protest vote over Gaza in Michigan primary contest

The US state of Michigan votes Tuesday in a presidential primary that is expected to be another ticker-tape parade for Republican Donald Trump -- but could deliver Democratic leader Joe Biden a bloody nose over the war in Gaza.

Biden faces no serious opposition to being nominated to run for a second term in the White House.

But as the civilian death toll mounts in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, he has seen support erode among Muslims and Arab Americans, a bloc crucial to his narrow 2020 victory over Trump in Michigan.

US President Joe Biden speaks alongside Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as he campaigns in the Detroit area on February 1, 2024

Jordan air-drops aid into Gaza with help of French plane

The Jordanian army on Monday said it had carried out a series of humanitarian aid drops of food and other supplies into the besieged Gaza Strip, one of them by a French army plane.

Jordanian forces made "four air drops carrying aid for the people of Gaza", under the directive of Jordanian King Abdullah II, a statement said.

The operation came on the same day that two human rights groups accused Israel of further limiting humanitarian aid into Gaza -- where the UN has warned of famine -- despite an order from the UN's top court.

A Jordanian military aircraft drops humanitarian aid over the southern Gaza Strip

'Become stronger': Iranians urged to vote as Mideast tensions soar

In the Iranian shrine city of Qom, huge street banners remind voters to head to the polls in Friday's parliamentary elections, held as the Gaza war stokes Middle East tensions.

Voters in the Islamic republic will pick a new parliament for another four years, as well as members of the Assembly of Experts in charge of electing Iran's supreme leader.

Iranian voters are due to pick a new parliament for another four years as well as members of the Assembly of Experts

Hezbollah fires rockets after deadly Israeli strikes on east Lebanon

Hezbollah on Monday fired a volley of rockets at an Israeli military base, the Lebanese group said after Israel's first strikes on Lebanon's east in months of hostilities linked to the Gaza war.

It was the first Israeli attack on Hezbollah outside Lebanon's south since war erupted on October 7 between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally.

Hezbollah and arch-foe Israel have exchanged near-daily fire, but strikes have been largely contained to the border area.

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire since early October, but the violence has been largely contained to the border area

Palestinian PM resigns citing 'new reality' of Gaza war

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced Monday the resignation of his government, which rules parts of the Israeli occupied West Bank, citing the need for change after the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza ends.

Shtayyeh submitted the resignation to the leader of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, president Mahmud Abbas, 88, whose office later said he accepted it.

The United States and other powers have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of all Palestinian territories after the end of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh at the cabinet meeting where he announced his resignation, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on February 20, 2024

US airman dead after self-immolating outside Israeli embassy

A US airman has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington at the weekend in protest over the war in Gaza, the Air Force said Monday.

The shocking act was an escalation of recent protests across the United States against Israel's actions in Gaza, where with US support it is waging a retaliatory war for an attack on October 7 by Hamas militants.

Emergency responders on Sunday had rushed to the scene in response to a "call for person on fire outside the Israeli Embassy," the capital city's fire department said.

US Secret Service vehicles block access to a street leading to the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC on February 25, 2024 after a man self-immolated there

WTO pushes for reform, warns multilateralism 'under attack'

The World Trade Organization pushed for reform at a high-level ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday, warning that economic headwinds and geopolitical tensions are threatening global commerce and multilateral trading systems.

The WTO's 13th ministerial conference (MC13), scheduled to run until Thursday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is the first in two years.

The WTO is hoping for progress, particularly on fishing, agriculture and electronic commerce.

WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the world was in a tough place as 'uncertainty and instability are everywhere'

UN alarmed as Israel says preparing for Rafah invasion

The UN chief warned Monday that an invasion of Rafah in far-southern Gaza would "put the final nail in the coffin" of aid operations, after Israel said its army had readied a plan to move civilians out of the packed city.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Rafah -- where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge near the Egyptian border -- is also "the core of the humanitarian aid operation" in the Gaza Strip where Israel has been fighting Hamas militants for nearly five months.

A child pulls a trolley with a water container past the Al-Faruq mosque, levelled by Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

Sudan authorities block cross-border aid to stricken Darfur

Authorities loyal to the army in war-ravaged Sudan have blocked cross-border aid to the western Darfur region, a move decried by aid workers and the United States.

The vast Darfur region, bordering Chad, has been one of the hardest hit parts of Sudan since war began 10 months ago between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

RSF are descendants of the Janjaweed militia which began a scorched earth campaign in Darfur more than two decades ago.

Refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan queue to collect drinking water from the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) distribution point at Ourang refugee camp in Adre, Chad on December 7, 2023

Qatar emir due in Paris for talks on Gaza

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, whose country has played the key mediation role in the Gaza war, visits Paris this week for talks with President Emmanuel Macron, the French presidency said Sunday.

The ruler's trip on Tuesday and Wednesday will be his first state visit to France since he became emir of the small but gas-rich and hugely influential emirate in 2013, according to the Elysee.

The Qatar ruler's trip on Tuesday and Wednesday will be his first state visit to France since he became emir