Mena Today

Lebanon's parliament passed an amended budget for 2024 that experts said neglected to include crucial reforms that would help the country emerge from a financial meltdown that has gutted the public sector for nearly five years.

The tanker Marlin Luanda was on fire but no deaths or injuries were reported after the vessel was struck by a Houthi anti-ship missile in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, commodities trader Trafigura and the U.S. military reported.

Catalonia's regional leader on Friday denied allegations by Spain's spy agency CNI that he had secretly led a radical separatist protest group, which he said CNI had used as a pretext to snoop on him.

Canada and Turkey have reached a deal to restart Canadian exports of drone parts in exchange for more transparency on where they are used, and it would take effect after Ankara completes its ratification of Sweden's NATO bid, two sources told Reuters.

Algeria on Friday expressed “many regrets and deep concern” after neighboring Mali’s military rulers scrapped a 2015 peace deal with separatist rebels that it had mediated.

The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, concluded his Middle East tour with a meeting in Istanbul on Friday, where he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday it had opened an investigation into several employees suspected of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas and that it had severed ties with those staff members.

Google is investing $8 million to support Israeli tech firms and Palestinian businesses, the Alphabet-owned group said, citing the need for small companies to secure financing during the Israel-Hamas war.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad chaired a meeting for commanders of the security apparatus in the army and the armed forces to formulate a comprehensive security roadmap.

Israel's government-run port of Ashdod has complained that a rival Chinese-run terminal at the northern port of Haifa has become a strategic risk during the Gaza war.

South Africa's genocide case against Israel may have ruffled feathers in the capitals of vital Western trading partners, but it has boosted the country's standing as a champion of the downtrodden Global South.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day, warning against what he called an alarming rise in antisemitism after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and efforts to minimize what happened that day.