The global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine will kill millions by leaving the hungriest more vulnerable to infectious diseases, potentially triggering the world's next health catastrophe, the head of a major aid organisation has warned.

A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports has stopped grain shipments from the world's fourth-largest exporter of wheat and corn, raising the spectre of shortages and hunger in low-income countries.

When Saudi doctor Safi took a new job at a hospital in the capital, she decided to offset her standard white lab coat with a look she once would have considered dramatic.

Walking into a Riyadh salon, she ordered the hairdresser to chop her long, wavy locks all the way up to her neck, a style increasingly in vogue among working women in the conservative kingdom.

A senior US official hinted Wednesday that more Arab nations are looking to make gestures to improve relations with Israel when President Joe Biden visits the region next month.

Biden will travel from July 13 to 16 to Israel, the West Bank and to a regional meeting in Saudi Arabia, which former US president Donald Trump assiduously courted in hopes the kingdom home to Islam's holiest sites would recognize the Jewish state.

Damascus airport is due to reopen on Thursday, almost two weeks after Israeli strikes rendered its runways unusable, the Syrian transport ministry said.

The Syrian authorities had to suspend flights and undertake major repairs after Israeli air strikes on June 10 had damaged the runways, the control tower, reception rooms and hangars.

"Damascus International Airport is back in service as of tomorrow," the Syrian transport ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Lebanon's ailing economy should receive a welcome injection of more than $3 billion thanks to a rebound in tourist arrivals over the summer, the tourism minister said Wednesday.

Lebanon defaulted on its debt in 2020, the local currency has lost around 90 percent of its value on the black market, and the UN now considers four in five Lebanese to be poor.

While soaring inflation is ravaging households with incomes in Lebanese pounds, the informal exchange rate makes prices attractive to most tourists.

Authorities in Iran have banned an Iranian movie about the struggles of a family in the sanctions-hit country after it was feted at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

"Leila's Brothers" by director Saeed Roustaee has been banned until further notice by the Cinema Organisation of Iran, Culture Minister Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaili told state news agency IRNA.

The movie "broke the rules by being entered at international film festivals without authorisation," the COI said.

Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled a rare ancient mosque in the country's south that the antiquities officials said sheds light on the region's transition from Christianity to Islam.

The remains of the mosque, believed to be more than 1,200 years old, were discovered during works to build a new neighbourhood in the Bedouin city of Rahat, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement.

Israeli lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to advance legislation to dissolve parliament and call an early election, after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said his eight-party coalition was no longer tenable.

The government has said it wants to fast-track parliament's dissolution but the opposition led by ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu may attempt to derail the process, in a bid to form a replacement government without the need for what would be Israel's fifth election in less than four years.

Israeli lawmakers were holding a first vote Wednesday on a government bill to dissolve parliament and call an early election, after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said his eight-party coalition was no longer tenable.

The government has said it wants to fast-track the bill but the opposition led by ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu will attempt to block its passage in a bid to form a replacement government without the need for what would be Israel's fifth election in less than four years.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Iran on Wednesday for talks on boosting trade and energy cooperation as the two countries grapple with Western economic sanctions.

Tehran and Moscow both have huge oil and gas reserves but are constrained by sanctions that limit their ability to export their output.

"Upon his arrival in Tehran, Lavrov met with President (Ebrahim) Raisi," state television's website Iribnews reported, without elaborating.