Years of sanctions on Iran have taken their toll, but on the strategically located island of Qeshm, people can still find goods from major global brands otherwise out of reach.
Off Iran's southern coast, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the United Arab Emirates' commercial hub of Dubai, Qeshm's merchants have been closely watching regional shifts since Tehran's landmark rapprochement with Saudi Arabia in March.
Britain's chief rabbi will join other faith leaders at Saturday's coronation of King Charles III but faces a unique problem -- how to ensure his attendance does not breach the Jewish Shabbat.
Ephraim Mirvis on Friday praised the "respectful, sensitive" way that King Charles's office had handled the situation -- even inviting him to spend the night with his wife Valerie at St James's Palace.
That will enable the chief rabbi to walk to the nearby Westminster Abbey on Saturday morning, rather than breaking Shabbat rules by using motorised transport.
Iran and Syria agreed to boost ties and develop economic relations, with a focus on reconstruction, as the Islamic republic's President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday concluded a landmark visit to Damascus.
Tehran has been a key ally to Damascus throughout Syria's long-running civil war, offering vital economic and military assistance that has helped the Syrian government claw back most of the territory it lost at the start of the conflict.
Air strikes and gunfire rocked Sudan's capital on Friday as fighting showed no sign of abating, even as the Sudanese army said it had sent a delegation for ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia.
Hundreds have died in nearly three weeks of fighting between forces of Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Multiple truces have been agreed since the fighting erupted on April 15, but none has been respected.
President Joe Biden's national security advisor said on Thursday he will travel to Saudi Arabia at the weekend for talks with Saudi leaders as well as Indian and Emirati officials.
"This weekend I will be in Saudi Arabia for meetings with its leadership," Jake Sullivan said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank in Washington.
The United Nations is short nearly $24 million needed to safely remove oil from an abandoned tanker off Yemen's coast, officials said Thursday, urging donors to stump up the remaining funds.
A virtual donor conference on Thursday raised $5.6 million in new contributions towards the $129 million unprecedented rescue operation, in which the UN purchased its own supertanker to remove more than a million barrels of oil from the beleaguered FSO Safer in the Red Sea.
Iran's president on Thursday hailed his visit to Damascus as a "turning point", after Tehran's support helped Syria retake most of the territory it lost in 12 years of war.
Ebrahim Raisi's two-day trip is the first such visit to Tehran's close ally since 2010, and gives Iran a leading role as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad seeks to focus on reconstruction, despite Western sanctions on both countries.
Thousands of people demonstrated Thursday in Tel Aviv and across Israel against the government's planned judicial overhaul, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu putting the controversial reforms on ice a month ago.
Opponents of the ambitious legislation, which seeks to give elected officials greater power over the judiciary, have kept up demonstrations in the commercial hub and across the country since the plan was presented in January.
Sudanese exiled rebel leader Abdel Wahid Nur -- a veteran of decades of fighting in the troubled Darfur region -- says there can be "no winner" in the war now raging between two rival generals.
"The Sudanese people want neither of them," Nur, now based in neighbouring South Sudan, told AFP. "They want a civilian government."
Battles have flared for weeks between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
US President Joe Biden on Thursday threatened to impose new sanctions over Sudan's conflict, saying the fighting "must end", as gunfire and explosions rocked Khartoum for a 20th straight day.
Hundreds of people have been killed in Sudan since battles began on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's forces and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
As the latest ceasefire expired at midnight (2200 GMT), the army said it was ready to abide by a new seven-day truce, but there was no word from its foes in the paramilitary RSF.
