Civil liberties activists asked Israel's Supreme Court Thursday to suspend cellphone monitoring put in place under emergency regulations to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Surveillance began this week after the government approved special orders that circumvented customary...

In a world gripped by a pandemic, global unrest and a fast-moving news cycle, it can be difficult to remember that the war in Syria is still happening. Even before the coronavirus outbreak took over daily lives around the globe, the conflict, which began in early 2011, had largely fallen...

Behind a black gate in an upscale Beirut suburb, the head of Lebanon’s banking lobby implored the government to hold firm against the latest crisis, pay the country’s debts and safeguard its financial industry. “A stable economy is largely dependent on a strong banking sector,” said...

Negotiations to restructure Lebanon’s foreign currency debt should not last more than nine months if well-intentioned, the economy minister was quoted as saying, after the heavily indebted state said it could not meet its debt repayments. Lebanon is set to default on its sovereign debt...