Ruth Sherlock

"This is an embarrassing time for Gulf countries," says political scientist Bessma Momani. "Ultimately, they gave Israel a normalization deal, but didn't really extract anything for the Palestinians."

Arab countries that were opening relations with Israel are watching its air strikes in Gaza anxiously worrying they'll be seen as abandoning the Palestinians.

An activist for women driving recently released from Saudi prison was summoned back to security forces and told her conviction on terrorism charges was upheld. She remains under watch.

Until recently, Marib was under Saudi control. The U.S. has ended support for the Saudi Arabian military intervention in Yemen — which contributed to civilian casualties, famine and displacement.

Misinformation about the coronavirus has been catching on easily in Lebanon, where sectarian rivalries leave groups searching for answers that back their world view.

Some of the country's last beaches spared from development are now carpeted in globs of tar from an oil spill in the Mediterranean, damaging beaches that are nesting grounds for endangered turtles.

Lebanese volunteers are trying to save one of the country's favorite beaches and the nesting places it provides for endangered sea turtles after a February oil spill from an oil tanker.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the unrest leading to the Syrian civil war. A check-in shows that it's tough for people on both government and rebel sides.

The conflict has not only pitted the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad against a band of rebels, but drawn the U.S., Iran, Russia and Turkey, among others, into a complex proxy war.

A decade since the start of Syria's civil war, hundreds of thousands have died, millions have been displaced, and the war still isn't over — although the Syrian regime has the clear upper hand.