Dubai on Monday announced an $8 billion plan for a stormwater runoff system, two months after an unprecedented deluge and widespread flooding brought the desert state to a standstill.

The rainwater drainage network announced by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum on social media platform X is set to be completed by 2033 with construction to start immediately.

"It will cover all areas of Dubai and will absorb more than 20 million cubic metres of water per day," Sheikh Mohammed said of the plan for Dubai, the futuristic business hub of the United Arab Emirates.

Iranians broadly deplore Western sanctions that have battered the economy, but the country's six presidential candidates offer differing solutions -- assuming the winner gets a say on foreign policy.

Punishing US sanctions, reimposed following Washington's withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, have brought years of economic hardships, fuelling political malaise and wide popular discontent.

Yarden Gil opens a reinforced metal door to enter the northern Israeli kindergarten where she works, which doubles as an underground shelter against rockets fired by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.

She is among tens of thousands displaced from the border area by the ever-present threat of Hezbollah attacks and, increasingly, the fear of an all-out war against the powerful Iran-backed militant group.

Chemical maker Covestro said Monday that it entered "concrete negotiations" with Emirati national energy firm ADNOC after the German group received a takeover offer worth nearly 12 billion euros ($12.8 billion).

Covestro's shares surged more than six percent in Frankfurt following the announcement, which comes after it first disclosed talks were ongoing with the UAE firm in September last year.

"The discussions so far have shown that Covestro and ADNOC can generally reach a common understanding regarding core aspects of a possible transaction," Covestro in a statement.

Israel's military bombed targets in Gaza on Monday and Hamas again demanded a permanent end to fighting, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the "intense phase" of Gaza's war is winding down.

The conduct of the war has led to growing tensions between Netanyahu and United States President Joe Biden, but on Monday Israel's defence minister was in Washington urging close cooperation.

In the buzz of a trendy Beirut neighbourhood, the din of bars and laughter blend together, far from the border violence with Israel further south and fears of all-out war.

"I'm 40 years old, and each year they tell us that war will break out this summer," Elie, a financial consultant who did not give his last name, said in a bar in the Lebanese capital with other locals chatting beside him.

"What we see in the street is different from what we hear in the media," he said. "What the foreign press is reporting makes people think that Lebanon is at war."

Saudi Arabia said Sunday that more than 1,300 faithful died during the hajj pilgrimage which took place during intense heat, and that most of the deceased did not have official permits.

"Regrettably, the number of mortalities reached 1,301, with 83 percent being unauthorised to perform hajj and having walked long distances under direct sunlight, without adequate shelter or comfort," the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

An AFP tally last week, based on official statements and reports from diplomats involved in their countries' responses, put the toll at more than 1,100.

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip should have been taking their final exams this month, a last hurdle before university and lifelong dreams, but the war in the Palestinian territory has crushed those hopes.

According to the education ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, 85 percent of educational facilities in the territory are out of service because of the war.

"I was eagerly awaiting the exams, but the war prevented that and destroyed that joy", said Baraa al-Farra, an 18-year-old student displaced from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Surrounded by a sea of rubble, the Palestinian Al-Balawi family in northern Gaza hang blankets above the ruins of their home to create a makeshift tent that provides shade from the searing summer heat.

The family are struggling to feed themselves in the Jabalia refugee camp after the nearly nine months of war that have followed Hamas's October 7 attack.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that "intense" fighting against Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city of Rafah is nearly over, more than eight months into the devastating war.

"The intense phase of the fighting against Hamas is about to end," Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 14 network, without providing a clear timeline.

"It doesn't mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah."