The United States on Wednesday condemned an Iranian drone flight near the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier the previous day as "unsafe" and "unprofessional."
The Eisenhower is the centerpiece of one of two carrier strike groups deployed as part of US efforts to deter Iran and its proxy forces in the Middle East from escalating the Israel-Hamas war into a broader regional conflict.
Ever since Hamas's deadly October 7 attack on southern Israel, the father of 17-year-old hostage Mia Leimberg had been praying for her safe release from captivity in Gaza -- and the return of the family pet.
To Moshe Leimberg's great joy, his daughter was finally freed on Tuesday as part of a group of hostages 12 -- 10 Israelis and two Thais -- that also included her mother and aunt.
And the release of the hostages under an agreement to pause fighting between Israel and Hamas also solved the mystery of what happened to Mia's pet dog Bella.
In the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, heavily pregnant Madleen Sabbagh fears years of violence are bleeding through the generations after her husband was among the latest to be killed.
Seven months pregnant, sitting at a window overlooking the densely populated Jenin refugee camp, Sabbagh said she stopped eating after her husband was shot in the heart earlier this month.
According to the family Mohammed Sabbagh, 30, had been standing beside his brother at the very same window during a raid by Israeli forces when he was hit by a sniper.
Gazans are "in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday, while calling for an expansion of the current pause in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"Intense negotiations are taking place to prolong the truce -– which we strongly welcome -- but we believe we need a true humanitarian ceasefire," he said at a United Nations Security Council meeting.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told the meeting that the Palestinian people "are faced with an existential threat" amid the conflict.
The Emirati host of the UN climate conference in Dubai denied Wednesday reports that he used his presidency of the crucial talks on global warming to pursue fossil fuels deals.
The allegations against Sultan Al Jaber, who is also CEO of his country's oil giant ADNOC, have fanned long-running suspicions over the wisdom of a petrostate hosting the COP28 talks.
But Jaber, who also chairs a UAE-owned clean energy company, strongly denied reports that he used his position as COP president to pitch new oil and gas investments to governments.
High in remote mountains in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, a new plant will soon take atmospheric CO2 and pump it into rock -- part of controversial attempts to target planet-heating emissions without abandoning fossil fuels.
Using novel technology developed by Omani start-up 44.01, the solar-powered plant will suck carbon dioxide from the air, dissolve it in seawater and inject it deep underground, where it will mineralise over a period of months.
A red keffiyeh scarf around her neck and a beaming smile on her face, Rouba Assi fell into her friends' arms after being freed from an Israeli prison.
"I missed you so much," said the 23-year-old activist, as the crowd around her hoisted her to their shoulders, chanting "Welcome back! Welcome back!"
Her parents, still in visible disbelief at her release after six months in an Israeli jail, could not take their eyes off her.
The Emirati president of the UN climate conference in Dubai denied Wednesday reports that he sought to use his leadership of COP28 to pursue fossil fuel deals for his country.
"These allegations are false, not true, incorrect and not accurate," Sultan Al Jaber, who is also CEO of United Arab Emirates' oil giant ADNOC, told reporters on the eve of the climate summit.
Tea and cheese sandwiches are on the breakfast menu for Taghrid al-Najjar's children. It should be an everyday moment, but their home in the Gaza Strip is now mostly rubble.
The walls have collapsed, with furniture and appliances buried under concrete.
Until the war, the 46-year-old mother had never left her farming village along the border with Israel in the southeast of the Strip.
Since Friday a truce has paused the fighting between Israel and Hamas, allowing them to return to a neighbourhood in ruins.
"It is only here that I feel good," she said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the butcher of Gaza" and accused him of spawning anti-Semitism across the world.
Erdogan has lashed out repeatedly at Israel for the scale of death and destruction caused by its response to Hamas militants' unprecedented October 7 cross-border attack.
He has branded Israel a "terrorist state" and called Hamas "a liberation group".
Erdogan redoubled those attacks during an appearance before his Islamic-rooted ruling party members in parliament.
