In a run-down north Syria camp, children displaced by the country's 13-year war played and splashed in volunteer-run mobile swimming pools that provided much-needed relief from the sweltering summer heat.
Volunteers from the Smile Younited charity barely had any time to finish setting up the three pools in a busy square surrounded by tents before children of all ages jumped in, dancing along to songs blasted on loudspeakers.
French judicial authorities on Sunday extended the detention of the Russian-born founder and chief of Telegram Pavel Durov after his arrest at a Paris airport over alleged offences related to the popular but controversial messaging app.
His arrest at the Le Bourget airport outside Paris late Saturday is the latest extraordinary twist in the career of one of the world's most influential tech icons.
Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it destroyed "thousands" of Hezbollah rocket launchers and thwarted a major attack, while the Lebanese group insisted it had been able to deliver a drone and rocket barrage of its own.
The result was perhaps the biggest exchange of fire in 10 months of a war which began with a Hamas attack launched from Gaza and has triggered both new violence on the Lebanon-Israel border and fears of a broader conflagration in the Middle East.
In key US swing state Michigan, Democratic voters of Arab and Middle Eastern heritage say Kamala Harris is going to have to win them back, after they were alienated by President Joe Biden's handling of Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
The town of Dearborn, home to 110,000 people and a cultural hub for Arab Americans, could play a decisive role in deciding the fate of the battleground state in November's presidential election.
On the deserted border between Lebanon and Israel, Spanish UN peacekeepers have for more than 10 months effectively been caught in a war zone.
Several Blue Helmets have been wounded in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, which has also left dozens of Lebanese civilians dead in fallout from the war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
"Sometimes we need to shelter because of the shelling... sometimes even inside the bunkers," said Alvaro Gonzalez Gavalda, a Blue Helmet at Base 964 of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Negotiators geared up for a crucial weekend of Gaza ceasefire talks Saturday, as Hamas said it was sending delegates to Cairo but would not participate in the discussions, and fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to broker an end to the war in Gaza between Hamas Palestinian militants and Israel.
The war, sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, has devastated Gaza, displaced nearly all of its population at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
A Syrian man suspected of belonging to a "terrorist group" has given himself up and confessed to killing three people and wounding eight others in a knife rampage at a German street festival, officials said on Sunday.
The random attack as thousands of people gathered on Friday night in the western city of Solingen has stunned Germany.
Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman were killed, officials said.
Four of the wounded remained in a serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, according to police.
Flanked by smartphone-wielding peace activists, members of an evicted Palestinian family marched onto land seized by armed Israeli settlers, shouting "Out! Out!" as they livestreamed the confrontation on Instagram.
After Israeli security forces turned them away, they retreated to their makeshift base: a fast-growing tent encampment for supporters of the family -– the Kisiyas -– that has spotlighted their plight amid widening settler attacks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israeli couple Aviva Pertzov and Jeff Lederer put off building a bomb shelter for years. But now, with rockets falling and threats rising, they are finally fortifying their home.
Attached to their house in Tel Mond, 30 minutes north of Tel Aviv, a solid, reinforced concrete room is emerging from behind a wooden mould -- strong enough to protect them and their grandchildren from a major blast.
When it is finished, this "safe room" will have white-painted walls, a sofa and a tiled floor, and a single window with a heavy metal shutter that closes across it with a clang.
In the dim corridors of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, mobile phone torches are now as essential as stethoscopes for doctors doing rounds without functioning generators.
Fuel shortages are widespread in the besieged territory after more than 10 months of war, further restricting services at those hospitals that are still open.
Ayman Zaqout had a hard time even reaching the Kamal Adwan, located in Beit Lahia, because of Israeli strikes and evacuation orders.
Once admitted, he discovered he would be treated mostly in the dark.
