Days ago, Tala Assaad could hear Israeli strikes near south Lebanon's coastal city of Sidon. Now, she's having lunch at a packed ski resort, eager to disconnect from news of war.
This winter, more well-heeled Lebanese have been hitting the slopes north of Beirut as Lebanon's Hezbollah and arch-foe Israel exchange near-daily fire in the country's south, amid fears of all-out conflict as the Gaza war rages.
The head of the World Trade Organization on Tuesday said she was "cautiously optimistic" about prospects of striking deals on fisheries and agriculture during a ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi.
The comments by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala came as tough negotiations kicked off on the second day of the WTO's 13th ministerial conference which is scheduled to run until Thursday but could go into over-time amid divisions.
"We just got started… so we are at the very beginning,” she told a press conference.
“I can say that I am cautiously optimistic."
US President Joe Biden said Monday he hoped a ceasefire in Gaza could start by the beginning of next week, adding that Israel was ready to halt operations during the Muslim month of Ramadan as part of any deal.
Amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, representatives from Egypt, Qatar, the United States, France and others have acted as go-betweens for Israel and Hamas, seeking a halt to the fighting and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Iraq enjoys tremendous oil wealth but many hard-scrabble farmers in the north say crude spills have contaminated their lands, piling on pressure as they already battle drought.
Amid the hills of Salaheddin province, puddles of the viscous black liquid pollute the otherwise fertile and green fields, rendering vast swathes of farmland barren.
"The oil has damaged all that the land can give," said one farmer, Abdel Majid Said, 62, who owns six hectares (15 acres) in the village of Al-Meaibdi.
"Every planted seed is ruined. This land has become useless."
At a museum in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gazan works on display are proclaimed to be an "ongoing artistic demonstration" in solidarity with the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
"This is not an exhibition", reads the sign at the entrance to the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, near Ramallah, showcasing art and heritage from the Gaza Strip.
Alongside contemporary pieces, the works include old, traditional paintings and costumes, as well as archeological artefacts, said board member Ehab Bessaiso, a former culture minister.
Israelis voted Tuesday in twice postponed municipal elections that could offer a gauge of the public mood nearly five months into the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Soldiers had already cast their ballots over the past week at special polling stations set up in army encampments in Gaza as fighting raged.
Polls opened at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and closed at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Tuesday, at which point turnout stood at around 49 percent, according to election authorities.
That was down from 59.5 percent in 2018.
Mediator Qatar expressed hopes Tuesday that a new truce between Israel and Hamas could be secured within days, after US President Joe Biden said a ceasefire could start next week and last through Ramadan.
As a dire humanitarian crisis unfolds in Gaza, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and the United States appealed for aid to be allowed into the war-battered Palestinian territory.
Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators have been in a protracted bid to broker a ceasefire nearly five months into the devastating war.
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.
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.
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.
