At least 64 Palestinians were killed, with 10 others still missing, in the deadly floods that hit eastern Libya, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. In a statement, Ahmad al-Deek, a political adviser at the ministry, said that "we are following the conditions of the Palestinian community in the affected areas in Libya to determine the extent of the suffering and the great damage that befell it." Read: Thousands are feared dead and thousands more are missing in flood-ravaged eastern Libya "We extended our deepest condolences to their (the victims') families and relatives, hoping that the missing persons would be found alive," al-Deek added. Read: 17-year-old Palestinian killed during Israeli military raid in northern West Bank The devastating Mediterranean storm Daniel struck eastern Libya on Sept. 10, causing the worst flooding Libya has seen in decades, resulting in the loss of thousands of lives and extensive damage to the region's infrastructure.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that Israel is “at the cusp” of a historic breakthrough leading to a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia, without outlining a clear path over the significant obstacles facing such an accord. He struck an optimistic tone throughout his roughly 25-minute address — and, once again, used a visual aid. He displayed contrasting maps showing Israel’s isolation at the time of its creation in 1948 and the six countries that have normalized relations with it, including four that did so in 2020 in the so-called Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia’s DataVolt to invest US$100 million at Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City “There’s no question the Abraham Accords heralded the dawn of a new age of peace. But I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough, an historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Netanyahu said. “Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East.” There are several hurdles in the way of such an agreement, including the Saudis’ demand for progress in the creation of a Palestinian state — a hard sell for Netanyahu’s government, the most religious and nationalist in Israel’s history. The Saudis are also seeking a defense pact with the United States and want help in building their own civilian nuclear program, which has fueled fears of an arms race with Iran. Netanyahu told Fox News on Friday evening that the “window of opportunity” for a deal with the Saudis was “the next few months.” “If we don’t achieve it in the next few months, we might delay it by quite a few years,” Netanyahu said. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview with Fox News this week that the two sides are getting closer to an agreement, without providing much detail about the U.S.-led negotiations. He declined to specify what exactly the Saudis are seeking for the Palestinians. Netanyahu said the Palestinians “could greatly benefit from a broader peace,” saying: “They should be part of that process, but they should not have a veto over the process.” Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down more than a decade ago, and violence has soared over the past year and a half, with Israel carrying out frequent military raids in the occupied West Bank and Palestinians attacking Israelis. Netanyahu’s government has approved thousands of new settlement homes in the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and which the Palestinians want for the main part of their future state. Rights group says Saudi Arabian border guards fired on and killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed the General Assembly on Thursday, made no direct reference to efforts to reach a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. But he reiterated the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has only worsened since the Abraham Accords were signed. “Those who think that peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full and legitimate national rights are mistaken,” Abbas said. Netanyahu has often seemed to revel in using the podium of the General Assembly to lambast Israel’s enemies. He famously held up a picture of a cartoon bomb in 2012 to illustrate Iran’s advancing uranium enrichment. In 2020, he claimed Hezbollah was stockpiling explosives near Beirut’s airport, prompting the Iran-allied militant group to organize an immediate visit by journalists, who saw heavy machinery but no weapons. The map he held up this year made no reference to the West Bank, Gaza or east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in 1967 that the Palestinians want for their future state. The map appeared to show Israel encompassing all three. The chamber was largely empty during his address, though there was a group of Netanyahu supporters who clapped several times during his speech. Protesters and supporters of Netanyahu demonstrated across the street from the U.N. headquarters. Netanyahu referred to the cartoon bomb when he held up the maps, pulling out a red marker and drawing a line showing a planned trade corridor stretching from India through the Middle East to Europe. The ambitious project, unveiled at this month’s Group of 20 summit, would link Saudi Arabia to Israel. He also reprised his longstanding criticism of Iran, which Israel views as its greatest threat. Netanyahu referred to Iran’s crackdown on protests, its supplying of attack drones to Russia for use in Ukraine, and its military activities across the Middle East. Remittances from Saudi Arabia can increase further: Ambassador Javed Patwary Netanyahu called for stepped-up sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, which has steadily advanced since the United States withdrew from a landmark agreement with Iran and world powers to which Israel had been staunchly opposed. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who also attended the General Assembly, urged the U.S. to lift sanctions in order to return to the nuclear deal. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, but the U.S. and others believe it had a secret weapons program until 2003. Raisi also denied Iran had sent drones to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. and European officials say the sheer number of Iranian drones being used by Russia shows that the flow of such weapons intensified after hostilities began. In an ambiguous turn of phrase during his address, Netanyahu said that “above all, Iran must face a credible nuclear threat.” The prime minister’s office later issued a clarification, saying he meant to say ”credible military threat.” Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never publicly acknowledged them, has repeatedly said all options are on the table to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.  

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a rare interview with Fox News on Wednesday that negotiations over Israel means the prospects of normalized relations between both countries “get closer” every day, but that treatment of Palestinians remains a “very important” issue to be resolved. Saimon Holidays inks MoU with Saudi Tourism Authority Saudi Arabia is discussing a major agreement with the United States to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for a U.S. defense pact and aid in developing its own civilian nuclear program. The Saudis have said any deal would require major progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, which is a hard sell for the most religious and nationalist government in Israel’s history. “For us, the Palestinian issue is very important. We need to solve that part,” Saudi Arabi’s de facto leader, widely known as MbS, said on “Special Report with Bret Baier” in an interview conducted in English, adding that there had been “good negotiations” so far. “We got to see where we go,” the prince said. “We hope that will reach a place, that it will ease the life of the Palestinians, get Israel as a player in the Middle East.” He also denied reports that the talks had been suspended, saying “every day, we get closer.” The interview aired shortly after President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while both were in New York for the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Biden raised concerns about the far-right Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians and urged Netanyahu to take steps to improve conditions in the West Bank at a time of heightened violence in the occupied territory. Netanyahu’s office said the meeting “mostly dealt with ways to establish an historic peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which could greatly advance an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and facilitate the establishment of an economic corridor to link Asia, the Middle East and Europe.” Asked during the interview about working with someone as conservative as Netanyahu, Prince Mohammed said: “If we have a breakthrough, reaching a deal that gives the Palestinians their needs and (making) the region calm, we’ve got to work with whoever’s there.” Saudi Arabia will host Ukrainian-organized peace summit in Aug, official says National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters before the interview was shown that it was best for the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia “to speak to how close they think they are, and where they think they are” in the process. “Obviously, we encourage normalization. We think it’s good not just for Israel and Saudi Arabia, we think it’s good for the whole region,” Kirby said. Prince Mohammed was also questioned about the possibility of Iran eventually building a nuclear weapon and said “we are concerned of any country getting a nuclear weapon” and that that if Iran were to get one, Saudi Arabi will seek to do the same: “We will have to get one.” That has worried nuclear nonproliferation experts, who say the U.S. granting the kingdom the ability to enrich uranium itself could fuel a regional arms race. Prince Mohammed has given very few interviews to Western media outlets, particularly since the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, in an operation by Saudi agents that U.S. intelligence says was likely approved by the prince. The prince has denied any involvement. He said on Fox News Channel of Khashoggi’s killing that “we tried to reform the security system to be sure that these kinds of mistakes doesn’t happen again.” “It was a mistake. It was painful,” the crown prince said, while insisting that “everyone involved” served jail time. In the five years since, the kingdom has shed whatever pariah status it had as focus has shifted to major diplomatic initiatives and progress on Vision 2030, the prince’s wide-ranging plan for overhauling the economy, providing jobs for young people and weaning the kingdom off oil revenues. Prince Mohammed was also asked about Jared Kushner, an ex-White House adviser and former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law who secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to jump start his new private equity firm. The prince said “we look” for global investment opportunities and that PIF keeps its commitments to investors — planning to do so even if Trump wins another term as president next year. Saudi Arabia has made major progress in winding down its devastating war with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, this week hosting a rebel delegation in the capital, Riyadh. It spearheaded the return of Syria to the Arab League, and in March agreed to a Chinese-brokered deal to restore diplomatic relations with Iran, its main regional rival. The prince’s far-reaching social reforms have transformed the kingdom from an ultraconservative state governed by a strict form of Islamic law to an aspiring entertainment powerhouse, investing billions of dollars in everything from top soccer stars and golf tournaments to video games. Blinken announces $150M in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combatting Islamic State group But the prince has proven to be even less tolerant of dissent than his predecessors. Saudis who speak out against his policies can face long prison sentences or even the death penalty, and that has even extended to Saudis living on U.S. soil. The 38-year-old prince assumed day-to-day rule after his aging father King Salman named him next in line to the throne in 2017. Biden, who had vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the Khashoggi killing while campaigning for president in 2020, has since bowed to that reality, patching up relations with the crown prince while seeking his help in controlling oil prices and managing other regional issues. Prince Mohammed said during the interview that “the agenda between Saudi Arabia and America today is really interesting” and characterized his country’s relationship with Biden as “really amazing.” He was also asked about critics who have accused Saudi Arabia of investing heavily in golf and other sports in attempted “sportswashing,” or spending to improve the kingdom’s political image abroad. The prince said he wasn’t bothered by such charges and if sports investments continue to grow Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product significantly, then his country would “continue to do sportswashing.”

An airstrike on a military airport in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region killed three people Monday, local officials said. The region’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement that the attack on the Arbat Airport, 28 kilometers southeast of the city of Suleimaniyah killed three of its personnel and injured three members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The airport had recently undergone rehabilitation to facilitate the training of anti-terror units affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two often-competing main parties in the region, whose seat of power is in Sulaymaniyah. Read:Heading for UN, Ukraine's president questions why Russia still has a place there The counter-terrorism service did not blame the attack on any party, but the Sulaymaniyah governorate in a statement urged “countries in the region to respect the sovereignty of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq,” implying that the strike was carried out by Turkey. Also on Monday, the Kurdistan National Congress, an umbrella organization of Kurdish groups and parties, said in a statement that one of its members was “assassinated” inside the group’s office in Erbil without giving further details. Turkey often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq that it believes to be affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s. Read: Everything you need to know about this year's meeting of leaders at the UN General Assembly In April, Turkey closed its airspace to flights to and from the Sulaymaniyah International Airport, citing an alleged increase in Kurdish militant activity threatening flight safety. Days later, the Syrian Democratic Forces — Kurdish-led forces operating in northeast Syria that are allied to the United States in its fight against the Islamic State but considered by Turkey to be an offshoot of the PKK — accused Turkey of launching a strike on the airport when SDF commander Mazloum Abdi was at the site. Abdi was unharmed.

Emergency workers uncovered more than 1,500 bodies in the wreckage of Libya's eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, and it was feared the toll could surpass 5,000 after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighborhoods of the city. The startling death and devastation wreaked by Mediterranean storm Daniel pointed to the storm's intensity, but also the vulnerability of a nation torn apart by chaos for more than a decade. The country is divided by rival governments, one in the east, the other in the west, and the result has been neglect of infrastructure in many areas. In Iran, snap checkpoints and university purges mark the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini protests Outside help was only just starting to reach Derna on Tuesday, more than 36 hours after the disaster struck. The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to the coastal city of some 89,000. Footage showed dozens of bodies covered by blankets in the yard of one hospital. Another image showed a mass grave piled with bodies. More than 1,500 corpses were collected, and half of them had been buried as of Tuesday evening, the health minister for eastern Libya said. At least one official put the death toll at more than 5,000. The state-run news agency quoted Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesman for the east Libya interior ministry, as saying that more than 5,300 people had died in Derna alone. Derna's ambulance authority said earlier Tuesday that 2,300 had died. But the toll is likely to be higher, said Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He told a U.N. briefing in Geneva via videoconference from Tunisia that at least 10,000 people were still missing. He said later Tuesday that more than 40,000 people have been displaced. The situation in Libya is "as devastating as the situation in Morocco," Ramadan said, referring to the deadly earthquake that hit near the city of Marrakesh on Friday night. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres conveyed his solidarity with the Libyan people and said the United Nations "is working with local, national and international partners to get urgently needed humanitarian assistance to those in affected areas," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions and realized that dams outside the city had collapsed. Flash floods were unleashed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea. Israel's PM pitches fiber optic cable idea to link Asia and the Middle East to Europe The wall of water "erased everything in its way," said one resident, Ahmed Abdalla. Videos posted online by residents showed large swaths of mud and wreckage where the raging waters had swept away neighborhoods on both banks of the river. Multi-story apartment buildings that once were well back from the river had facades ripped away and concrete floors collapsed. Cars lifted by the flood were left dumped on top of each other. Libya's National Meteorological Center said Tuesday it issued early warnings for Storm Daniel, an "extreme weather event," 72 hours before its occurrence, and notified all governmental authorities by e-mails and through media ... "urging them to take preventive measures." It said that Bayda recorded a record 414.1 millimeters (16.3 inches) of rain from Sunday to Monday. On Tuesday, local emergency responders, including troops, government workers, volunteers and residents dug through rubble looking for the dead. They also used inflatable boats to retrieve bodies from the water. Many bodies were believed trapped under rubble or had been washed out into the Mediterranean Sea, said eastern Libya's health minister, Othman Abduljaleel. "We were stunned by the amount of destruction ... the tragedy is very significant, and beyond the capacity of Derna and the government," Abduljaleel told The Associated Press on the phone from Derna. Red Crescent teams from other parts of Libya also arrived in Derna on Tuesday morning but extra excavators and other equipment had yet to get there. Flooding often happens in Libya during rainy season, but rarely with this much destruction. A key question was how the rains were able to burst through two dams outside Derna – whether because of poor maintenance or sheer volume of rain. Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist and meteorologist at Leipzig University, said in a statement that Daniel dumped 440 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rain on eastern Libya in a short time. "The infrastructure could probably not cope, leading to the collapse of the dam," he said, adding that human-induced rises in water surface temperatures likely added to the storm's intensity. Local authorities have neglected Derna for years. "Even the maintenance aspect was simply absent. Everything kept being delayed," said Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow specializing in Libya at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. Russia attacks a Ukrainian port before key grain deal talks between Putin and Turkey's president Factionalism also comes into play. Derna was for several years controlled by Islamic militant groups. Military commander Khalifa Hifter, the strongman of the east Libya government, captured the city in 2019 only after months of tough urban fighting. The eastern government has been suspicious of the city ever since and has sought to sideline its residents from any decision-making, said Harchaoui. "This mistrust might prove calamitous during the upcoming post-disaster period," he said. Hifter's eastern government based in the city of Benghazi is locked in a bitter rivalry with the western government in the capital of Tripoli. Each is backed by powerful militias and by foreign powers. Hifter is also backed by Egypt, Russia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, while the west Libya administration is backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy. Still, the initial reaction to the disaster brought some crossing of the divide. The Tripoli-based government of western Libya sent a plane with 14 tons of medical supplies and health workers to Benghazi. It also said it had allocated the equivalent of $412 million for reconstruction in Derna and other eastern towns. Airplanes arrived Tuesday in Benghazi carrying humanitarian aid and rescue teams from Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Egypt's military chief of staff met with Hifter to coordinate aid. Germany, France and Italy said they also were sending rescue personnel and aid. It was not clear how quickly the aid could be moved to Derna, 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Benghazi, given conditions on the ground. Ahmed Amdourd, a Derna municipal official, called for a sea corridor to deliver aid and equipment. President Joe Biden said in a statement Tuesday that the United States is sending emergency funds to relief organizations and coordinating with the Libyan authorities and the U.N. to provide additional support. "Jill and I send our deepest condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones in the devastating floods in Libya," he said. The storm hit other areas in eastern Libya, including the town of Bayda, where about 50 people were reported dead. The Medical Center of Bayda, the main hospital, was flooded and patients had to be evacuated, according to footage shared by the center on Facebook. Other towns that suffered included Susa, Marj and Shahatt, according to the government. Hundreds of families were displaced and took shelter in schools and other government buildings in Benghazi and elsewhere in eastern Libya. Northeast Libya is one of the country's most fertile and green regions. The Jabal al-Akhdar area — where Bayda, Marj and Shahatt are located — has one of the country's highest average annual rainfalls, according to the World Bank.

Snap checkpoints. Internet disruptions. University purges. Iran's theocracy is trying hard to both ignore the upcoming anniversary of nationwide protests over the country's mandatory headscarf law and tamp down on any possibility of more unrest. Yet the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini still reverberates across Iran. Some women are choosing to go without the headscarf, or hijab, despite an increasing crackdown by authorities. Graffiti, likely against Iran's government, is rapidly painted over in black by Tehran's municipal workers. University professors have been fired over their apparent support for demonstrators. International pressure remains high on Iran, even as the administration tries to deescalate tensions with other nations in the region and the West after years of confrontation. Iran executes 3 men over violence during last year’s anti-government protests "The weaponization of 'public morals' to deny women and girls their freedom of expression is deeply disempowering and will entrench and expand gender discrimination and marginalization," independent United Nations experts warned earlier this month. The demonstrations over Amini's death that erupted after her arrest a year ago by the country's morality police, allegedly over the hijab, represented one of the largest challenges to Iran's theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A security force crackdown that followed saw over 500 people killed and more than 22,000 people detained. Iran's government, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have blamed the West for fomenting the unrest, without offering evidence to support the allegation. However, the protests found fuel in the widespread economic pain that Iran's 80 million people have faced since the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers after then-President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally pulled America from the accord. As more women forgo the hijab, Iran’s government pushes back As Western sanctions came back, Iran currency — the rial — cratered, decimating people's lifesavings. Prices of food and other essentials skyrocketed as inflation gripped the nation, in part due to worldwide pressures following the coronavirus pandemic and the launch of Russia's war on Ukraine. Unemployment officially stands at 8% overall, though one out of every five young Iranians is out of work. Videos of the demonstrations last year showed many young people taking part in the protests, leading authorities to apparently focus more closely on Iran's universities in recent weeks. There's historic precedence for the concerns: In 1999, student-led protests swept Tehran and at least three people were killed while 1,200 were detained as demonstrations rapidly spread to other cities. Though university campuses have largely remained one of the few safe places for students to demonstrate, even campuses have felt the latest crackdown. Over the past year, the Union Council of Iranian Students has said that hundreds of students faced disciplinary panels at their universities over the protests. Protests hit multiple Iran cities for first time in weeks During the same period, at least 110 university professors and lecturers have been fired or temporarily suspended, according to a report by the reformist newspaper Etemad. The firings have been primarily focused at schools in Tehran, including Tehran Azad University, Tehran University and Tehran Medical University. Etemad said those who were dismissed fell into two groups: teachers concerned by the election of hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi and those who supported the protests that followed Amini's death. But there were firings at other schools as well. Iran acknowledges ‘tens of thousands’ detained in protests At Tehran's Sharif University of Technology, outspoken artificial intelligence and bioinformatics professor Ali Sharifi Zarchi, who backed his students taking part in the protests and later faced interrogation by Iranian security forces, was among those laid off. A petition urging the university to overturn his firing was signed by 15,000 people. "Putting pressure on professors and students is a black stain on the proud history of #Tehran_University and it must be stopped," Zarchi wrote online before his dismissal. University teachers who were dismissed also included Hossein Alaei, a former commander in the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and vice defense minister, and Reza Salehi Amiri, a former culture minister. Alaei had once, a decade ago, compared Khamenei to Iran's former shah, while Amiri was a former official in the administration of the relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani, whose government reached the nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, has criticized the university firings. "Destroying the prestige of the universities and their professors ... is a loss for the students, science and the country," Rouhani said, according to a report by the online news site Jamaran. The head of Tehran University, Mohammad Moghimi, had tried to defend the dismissals, describing professors as facing "ethics problems." Some hard-liners also have tried to insist the firings weren't political, though the hard-line newspaper Kayhan directly linked the dismissals to the demonstrations. "It is not logical to allow someone to propagate against the system under the direction of foreigners," the newspaper wrote. Those on the streets of Tehran say the governments' move will likely make the situation worse. "They want to insert their own people in the university in hope of stopping the protest, but we students will show our objections in a way that they cannot imagine," said Shima, a 21-year-old university student. "They failed to prevent last year's protests since nobody can predict earthquakes." Authorities "are fighting against windmills using wooden swords," added Farnaz, a 27-year-old university student. Both women gave just their first name for fear of reprisals. The government has been trying to stay publicly quiet about the anniversary. Raisi never said Amini's name during a recent news conference with journalists — who also only tangentially referred to the demonstrations. State-run and semiofficial media in Iran as well have avoided mentioning the anniversary, which typically signals pressure from the government. But privately, activists report a rise in the number of people being questioned and detained by security forces, including an uncle of Amini. Saleh Nikbakht, a lawyer for Amini's family, faces a court case accusing him of spreading "propaganda" over his interviews with foreign media. More police officers have been noticed on Tehran's streets in recent days, including snap checkpoints for those riding on motorcycles in the country's capital. Internet access has been noticeably disrupted over recent days, according to the advocacy group NetBlocks. And abroad, Iranian state media reported that someone set tires ablaze in front of the Iranian Embassy in Paris over the weekend. Demonstrations marking the anniversary on Saturday are planned in multiple cities abroad.

Israel’s prime minister on Sunday floated the idea of building infrastructure projects such as a fiber optic cable linking countries in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula with Europe through Israel and Cyprus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s “quite confident” such an infrastructure “corridor” linking Asia to Europe through Israel and Cyprus is feasible. He said such projects could happen if Israel normalizes relations with other countries in the region. The 2020 U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and the Biden administration is trying to establish official ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. READ: Russia attacks a Ukrainian port before key grain deal talks between Putin and Turkey's president “An example and the most obvious one is a fiber optic connection. That’s the shortest route. It’s the safest route. It’s the most economic route,” Netanyahu said after talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides. The Israeli leader’s pitch is itself an extension of proposed energy links with Cyprus and Greece as part of growing collaboration on energy in the wake of discoveries of significant natural gas deposits in the economic zones of both Israel and Cyprus. Netanyahu repeated that he and Christodoulides are looking to follow through on plans for a 2,000-megawatt undersea electricity cable known as the EurAsia Interconnector connecting Israel with Cyprus and Greece that aims to act as an energy supply back-up for both Israel and Cyprus. READ: 18 dead in Iraq after bus carrying Shiite pilgrims to Karbala overturns “You want to be connected to other sources of power that can allow a more optimal use of power or give you power when there is a failure in your own country,” Netanyahu said. “That is something that we’re discussing seriously and we hope to achieve.” Another energy link involves a Cypriot proposal to build a pipeline that would convey offshore natural gas from both Israel and Cyprus to the east Mediterranean island nation where it would be fuel for electricity generators or potentially be liquefied for export by ship. Christodoulides said given Europe’s need for energy diversification in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Cyprus and Israel are looking to developing “a reliable energy corridor” linking the East Mediterranean basin to Europe through projects including gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing plants. Netanyahu said his government fully backs a European decision to create a regional fire fighting hub in Cyprus from which aircraft and other technology could be dispatched to help put out fires in neighboring countries. “The climate isn’t going to get cooler. It’s going to get hotter. And with, you know, with the heating up of our region and the globe, firefighting becomes a really important thing. We can I think we can do it better together,” the Israeli leader said. READ: Iranian FM says ties with Saudi Arabia "moving in right direction" Talks between Christodoulides and Netanyahu precede a trilateral meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday. Since 2016 such meetings between the leaders of the three countries have become a staple of what they said are burgeoning ties that Netanyahu described as “a deep friendship, both personal, but also between our nations” that is “real” and “long overdue.”

Two people were hospitalized following a 3½-hour Russian drone barrage on a port in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Sunday, officials said. The attack on the Reni seaport comes a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the resumption of food shipments from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain agreement that Moscow broke off from in July. Russian forces fired 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones along the Danube River in the early hours of Sunday, 22 of which were shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, described the assault as part of a Russian drive “to provoke a food crisis and hunger in the world.” Read: Putin, Erdogan set to meet amid efforts to repair Ukraine grain deal Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the attack was aimed at fuel storage facilities used to supply military equipment. Putin and Erdogan’s long-awaited meeting is due to take place in Sochi on Russia’s southwest coast on Monday. Turkish officials have confirmed that the pair will discuss renewing the Black Sea grain initiative, which the Kremlin pulled out of six weeks ago. The deal — brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 — had allowed nearly 33 million metric tons (36 million tons) of grain and other commodities to leave three Ukrainian ports safely despite Russia’s war. Read: Drones target 6 regions in biggest attack on Russia since troops sent to Ukraine, officials say However, Russia broke away from the agreement after claiming that a parallel deal promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored. Moscow complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade, even though it has shipped record amounts of wheat since last year. The Sochi summit follows talks between the Russian and Turkish foreign ministers on Thursday, during which Russia handed over a list of actions that the West would have to take in order for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports to resume. Erdogan has indicated sympathy with Putin’s position. In July, he said Putin had “certain expectations from Western countries” over the Black Sea deal and that it was “crucial for these countries to take action in this regard.” Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were killed and two others were wounded during Russian shelling Sunday on the village of Vuhledar in the Donetsk area. Read: N. Korea's Kim calls for readiness to smash US-led invasion plot, as US trains with South and Japan Artillery fire hit eight settlements across the region, Ukraine’s National Police wrote on Telegram. Ukrainian prosecutors also announced Sunday that they had opened a war crimes investigation into the death of a police officer killed by Russian shelling on the town of Seredyna-Buda on Saturday afternoon. Two other police officers and one civilian were wounded during the attack, which hit Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region.

Hundreds of Eritrean government supporters and opponents clashed with each other and with Israeli police Saturday, leaving dozens injured in one of the most violent street confrontations among African asylum seekers and migrants in Tel Aviv in recent memory. Among those hurt were 30 police officers and three protesters hit by police fire. Eritreans from both sides faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal, rocks and at least one axe, tearing through a neighborhood of south Tel Aviv where many asylum seekers live. Protesters smashed shop windows and police cars, and blood spatter was seen on sidewalks. One government supporter was lying in a puddle of blood in a children’s playground. Israeli police in riot gear shot tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to control the protesters, who broke through barricades and hurled chunks rocks at the police. Police said officers resorted to live fire when they felt their lives were in danger. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would convene a meeting Sunday to discuss steps against those who participated in the clashes, including deportations. A statement by his office referred to them as “illegal infiltrators.” The clashes came as Eritrean government supporters marked the 30th anniversary of the current ruler's rise to power. The event was held near the Eritrean embassy in south Tel Aviv. Eritrea has one of the world's worst human rights records. Asylum seekers in Israel and elsewhere say they fear death if they were to return. Police said Eritrean government supporters and opponents had received permission for separate events Saturday, and had promised to stay away from each other. At some point, the promises were broken, said Chaim Bublil, a Tel Aviv police commander. Read: Key Beirut road reopens after rival groups clash overnight “A decision was made by the government opponents to break through the barriers, to clash with the police, to throw stones, to hit police officers,” Bublil told reporters at the scene. He said the police had arrested 39 people and confiscated tasers, knives and clubs. The Magen David Adom rescue service said at least 114 people were hurt, including eight who were in serious condition. The others had moderate or mild injuries. Of those hurt, 30 were police officers, said Bublil. A spokesperson for Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital said it was treating 11 patients for gunshot wounds. Police said three protesters were wounded by police fire. By late Saturday afternoon, the clashes had stopped. Police were still rounding up protesters, putting them on buses. Many of the anti-government protesters wore sky blue shirts designed after Eritrea's 1952 flag, a symbol of opposition to the government of the east African country, while government supporters wore purple shirts with a map of Eritrea. Eritreans make up the majority of the more than 30,000 African asylum seekers in Israel. They say they fled danger and persecution from a country known as the “North Korea of Africa” with forced lifetime military conscription in slavery-like conditions. Eritrea's government has denounced anti-government protesters as “ asylum scum ” who have marched against similar events in Europe and North America. Read: Suspected Palestinian shooting attack at West Bank car wash kills 2 Israelis President Isaias Afwerki, 77, has led Eritrea since 1993, taking power after the country won independence from Ethiopia after a long guerrilla war. There have been no elections and there’s no free media. Exit visas are required for Eritreans to leave the country. Many young people are forced into military service with no end date, human rights groups and United Nations experts say. In Israel, they face an uncertain future as the state has attempted to deport them. But despite the struggle to stay, in often squalid conditions, many say they enjoy some freedoms they never would have at home — like the right to protest. Eritrean asylum seekers are often “hunted and harassed” by the Eritrean government and its supporters inside Israel, said Sigal Rozen, from the Tel Aviv-based human rights organization Hotline for Refugees and Migrants. Read more: Israeli military fire killed Palestinian teen in occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials say Events like the one held in Tel Aviv on Saturday are controversial because they raise money for the heavily sanctioned government and are used to pressure Eritreans far from home, said Elizabeth Chyrum, director of the London-based Human Rights Concern — Eritrea.

A bus carrying pilgrims to the Iraqi city of Karbala overturned north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 18 people, medical officials said. Millions of believers converge on the city each year for the Shiite pilgrimage of Arbaeen, regarded as the largest annual public gathering in the world. Pilgrims come from various parts of Iraq as well as from Iran and the Gulf countries, with many making their way to Karbala on foot. Two Iraqi medical officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media said that the bus overturned near the town of Balad, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Read: 6 Turkish soldiers killed in attacks by Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, Ankara says The victims were 15 men and three women. Among them were 10 Iranians, two Iraqis — the bus driver and his son — and six people of unknown nationality, the officials said. Arbaeen marks the anniversary of the 40th day of mourning following the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein at the hands of the Muslim Umayyad forces in the Battle of Karbala, during the tumultuous first century of Islam’s history. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was personally observing the entry of Iranian pilgrims to Iraq via the Shalamcheh border crossing on Saturday, where he and Iranian Vice President Mohammad Mokhber also laid the foundation stone for a railway project that will provide rail transportation between the two countries. Read more: 8 killed in attack by gunmen on an Iraqi village: Official