French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Damascus on Monday for the first visit by a Western European head of state since Syria's new authorities took power.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been rebooting Syria's international credentials and seeking to revive his struggling country after toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

"I have come to reaffirm France's commitment to the Syrian people. To a sovereign Syria, united in its diversity and at peace with its neighbours," Macron, who will leave on Tuesday, announced on X.

July 6 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Syria on Monday, Syria's state news agency said, in the first visit to Damascus by a European Union head of state since rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

The visit underlines Syria's geopolitical transformation under Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander who has established close ties with Western and Middle Eastern powers that shunned Assad, as he seeks to rebuild a country shattered by 13 years of war.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA, July 6 (Reuters) - A U.N. human rights body on Monday called Israel’s detention of Gazan doctor Hussam Abu Safiya arbitrary and urged his immediate release, as rights groups and his lawyer warned that his life was in imminent danger.

In its finding, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Israel's actions contravened multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

ANKARA, July 6 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the right to hold demonstrations and media freedom were essential in democracies, when asked about Turkey’s recent crackdown on dissidents and restrictions ahead of this week’s summit.

Turkey will host leaders from the 32 allied countries, as well as officials from NATO's partners, in Ankara for a summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Authorities have stepped up security across the capital, banning demonstrations, erecting barricades and closing roads.

By Parisa Hafezi and Angus McDowall

DUBAI, July 6 (Reuters) - Iran's theocratic rulers are mobilising mass crowds of the revolutionary faithful on the streets of Tehran, but behind the display of unity it is far from clear they have resolved gaping internal fractures over the economy and state repression.

Vast numbers are attending a week of funeral events for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes at the start of the war, in mourning ceremonies, marches and demonstrations across Iran.

By Jana Choukeir and Khalil Ashawi

TYRE, July 6 (Reuters) - On a beachfront in the coastal city of Tyre, war has finally abated just enough for children to play in the waves and families to gather under parasols as life slowly returns to southern Lebanon.

But away from the shore, people coming home after months of exile are having to adapt to harsh new realities: the threat of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah flaring up again and the challenge of rebuilding from the destruction Israeli bombs have wreaked on their hometowns.

By Samia Nakhoul

BEIRUT, July 6 (Reuters) - The funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was more than a national farewell. The sea of mourners in Tehran sent a message to the United States and Israel that their attempt to break the Islamic Republic had failed.

Rather than looking weakened by the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on February 28, Iran presented itself as defiant, unified and determined to shape what comes next.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, July 6 (Reuters) - Hamas said on Monday it had dissolved its de facto government in Gaza and signalled it was ready to hand over to a group of Palestinian technocrats, as it presses Israel to honour other parts of a stalled U.S.-backed peace plan.

The group's promise to end the body overseeing ministries — which has run for more than a decade — was a key part of the plan for a post-war Gaza set out by U.S. President Donald Trump after the start of a fragile ceasefire with Israel in October.

JERUSALEM, July 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has threatened to fight a Supreme Court order regarding a media regulator, reigniting a judicial row that shook Israel in the months leading up to Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack.

The decision comes ahead of a national election expected by late October.

WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT SAY?

In a statement on Sunday, the government said that a June 17 ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the composition of the Second Authority for Television and Radio was a clear case of judicial overreach.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - Seven protesters who blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in a 2024 pro-Palestinian protest against Israel's assault on Gaza were convicted of misdemeanor charges by a San Francisco jury that remained deadlocked on the more serious charge of felony conspiracy.

The jury convicted each of the seven protesters on six misdemeanor counts, including false imprisonment, obstruction of thoroughfare and unlawful assembly, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement on Thursday.