Russia's assault on Ukraine is reverberating in the energy-rich Gulf, where top oil and gas producers face economic and political dilemmas in easing sky-high prices and alleviating shortages in Europe.
As oil prices broke past $100 per barrel and risks of supply disruptions grew, eyes in Europe were increasingly focusing on oil kingpin Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, one of the biggest natural gas exporters.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog was in Greece Thursday for a trip aimed in part at reassuring an ally as Israel makes an outreach to Turkey, with tensions fraught between Athens and Ankara.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine overshadowed the visit and Herzog opened a meeting with his Greek counterpart Katerina Sakellaropoulou by voicing support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and concern for the nation's Jewish community.
A court fight within Israeli spytech firm NSO Group has shed new light on the crisis engulfing the company, including tensions over whether to keep selling malware to autocrats to stay afloat.
NSO was already mired in debt before an investigation revealed last year that its Pegasus phone-hacking software had been used to spy on hundreds of journalists, dissidents and activists worldwide.
Now the surveillance tech giant is teetering, especially after being banned by the United States.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices above $100 a barrel and pummeled European equities on Thursday, while Wall Street stocks finished solidly higher after rebounding during the session.
Both Frankfurt and Paris shed as much as five percent during a brutal round of trading, as investors fled risky equities, while haven investment gold rose to over $1,923 per ounce.
"Russia's latest wave of aggression against Ukraine put a darker cloud over the global economy as higher oil threatens to exacerbate inflation risks," Joe Manimbo of Western Union Business Solutions said.
At least six pro-government fighters, including Syrian troops, were killed in Israeli air strikes Thursday targeting positions held by Iran-backed groups near the capital Damascus, a war monitor reported.
It is the fourth time this month that Israeli strikes have been reported inside Syria, keeping up a campaign against pro-Iranian forces supporting the Damascus government in the more than decade-old civil war.
In many countries, public libraries are considered a dying relic amid the shift to digital, but in Lebanon they are getting a new lease of life as its economy flatlines.
Every Friday afternoon, Munira Khalifa takes her son Elia to a public library in Beirut for a weekly storytelling event -- one of the last affordable pleasures as a crashing local currency has rendered books something of a luxury.
"We had reached a point where we couldn't find anywhere to take Elia because of the coronavirus pandemic and our difficult financial situation," Khalifa said.
Conservation group BirdLife Cyprus reported Wednesday a "worrying increase" in illegal bird trappings last year, blaming authorities for reducing fines for killing protected species.
"This sadly comes as no surprise, following a shameful relaxation of the Cyprus bird-protection law in December 2020," the group said in a statement.
It has systematically monitored bird trapping levels for the past 20 years in the Republic of Cyprus and a British military base area on the Mediterranean island.
Tunisia has withdrawn from cinemas a new Agatha Christie adaptation starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot, following protests over "normalisation" with the Jewish state, officials said Wednesday.
British director Kenneth Branagh's "Death on the Nile", already banned in Kuwait and Lebanon for the same reason, will no longer be shown in cinemas across the North African country, the ministry's press office said.
Negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal have entered a "critical" stage during which some key issues still need to be resolved, Tehran's top diplomat said on Wednesday.
The 2015 accord had offered Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme, but the US unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump.
Western powers that have been locked in nuclear talks with Iran have said in the past week that a deal was within reach, while stressing the ball was in the Islamic republic's court.
Lebanon has thwarted a plan by the Islamic State group to carry out three suicide bombings targeting Shiite religious compounds in Beirut's southern suburbs, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
"A terrorist group had recruited young Palestinian men in Lebanon to carry out major bombing attacks using explosive belts" and other munitions, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi told a press conference.
"Three separate targets were to be hit at the same time," the ministry said, in an operation Mawlawi said would have caused significant loss of life.
