Prosecutors in the Arab Gulf nation of Bahrain on Thursday have handed down yearlong prison sentences to three people for debating Islamic theology in a series of blog posts and online videos.

The three are part of a local cultural society called Tajdeed, Arabic for Renewal, that says it questions traditional Islamic scholarship and jurisprudence but not the religion itself. Critics, including prominent Shiite clerics in the kingdom, have accused the group of attacking the foundations of Islam and have waged a campaign of incitement against them.

Syrian state media said Israel staged airstrikes in the Damascus area early Thursday, wounding two soldiers and causing material damage.

Loud explosions were heard over the Syrian capital around 1:30 a.m., and the SANA state news agency said Syrian air defenses were "confronting hostile targets." SANA, quoting an unidentified military official, said some missiles were shot down by the air defenses.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, has appointed his eldest son Khaled as crown prince of Abu Dhabi, placing him as next in line to take over as the leader of the federation.

The state-run WAM news agency announced the appointment of Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as crown prince late Wednesday, without providing further details.

Congress is moving toward doing something it hasn't done since the Vietnam War — repealing authorizations for the president's use of military force. For lawmakers, that's an important gesture toward reclaiming a say over the wars America wages abroad.

The Senate voted 66-30 on Wednesday to repeal the 2002 resolution giving President George W. Bush the green light to invade Iraq, an authorization that many now see as a mistake. The measure also would repeal the 1991 resolution authorizing the U.S. military's combat action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Amal Oraby is usually a fixture at street protests. But as tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated for months against a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary, Oraby is sitting this one out.

An activist and lawyer, Oraby is one of the many Palestinian citizens of Israel who have stayed on the sidelines of some of the country's largest and most sustained demonstrations — a glaring absence in a movement that says it aims to preserve the country's democratic ideals.

The Senate is poised to vote Wednesday to repeal the 2002 measure that greenlighted the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, which would end more than 20 years of authorization for U.S. presidents to use force in that country and return those war powers to Congress.

The Iraq War ended years ago and the repeal is not expected to affect any current troop deployments. About 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government and assist and advise local forces.

In schools across the world, children are halfway into their second semester. But in a Palestinian refugee camp south of Jerusalem, kids wake up at 1 p.m. They kick soccer balls, hang out in barbershops and aimlessly scroll through TikTok. They watch television until dawn, just to wake up late and laze around all over again.

Palestinian public schools in the West Bank have been closed since Feb. 5 in one of the longest teachers' strikes in recent memory against the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority. Teachers' demands for a pay raise have escalated into a protest movement that has vexed the increasingly autocratic Palestinian self-rule government as it plunges deeper into an economic crisis.

Syrian President Bashar Assad replaced several Cabinet ministers Wednesday amid a sharp increase in prices and worsening economic conditions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, state media reported.

SANA reported that Assad replaced the ministers of oil, internal trade, industry and social affairs and labor.

The Assad regime is using profits from the captagon trade to continue its “campaign of terror on the Syrian people,” UK Minister of State for the Middle East Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon said, after the UK and US imposed sanctions on Syrian and Lebanese individuals allegedly responsible for the illicit captagon trade.

“The UK and U.S. will continue to hold the regime to account for brutally repressing the Syrian people and fueling instability across the Middle East,” the Minister added.

Saudi Arabia has agreed to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a "dialogue partner", state media reported on Wednesday, the latest indication of closer political ties with China.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 as a political, economic and security organization to rival Western institutions.