Turkey's presidential election is being anxiously watched by Kurds in Syria and Iraq as economic interests compete with fears of a regional military escalation against some Kurdish groups.

The long-running and deadly conflict between Ankara and militant groups from the ethnic Kurdish minority has spilled across the borders of both Iraq and Syria.

Saudi Arabia's first astronauts in decades rocketed toward the International Space Station on a chartered multimillion-dollar flight Sunday.

SpaceX launched the ticket-holding crew, led by a retired NASA astronaut now working for the company that arranged the trip from Kennedy Space Center. Also on board: a U.S. businessman who now owns a sports car racing team.

Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli army raid in a West Bank refugee camp early on Monday, Palestinian health officials said, while the Biden administration sharply condemned Israel's latest act of settlement expansion.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the three men were killed during a raid in Balata, a refugee camp near the city of Nablus. Six people were wounded, including one who was in critical condition, the ministry said.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound Sunday, Israeli police said, a controversial move by the extreme-right politician amid heightened tensions in annexed east Jerusalem.

One man is revered in Western capitals for standing up to Russia's full-scale invasion of his country.

In a field close to the Gaza Strip's restive frontier, apiarist Miassar Khoudair checks that her queen bee has survived five days of deadly cross-border fire between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused some Arab leaders of ignoring the horrors of Russia's invasion of his country during a speech Friday at an Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

"Unfortunately, there are some in the world and here, among you, who turn a blind eye to those cages and illegal annexations," Zelensky told summit attendees, urging them to "take an honest look" at the war.

Arab leaders welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad back into the fold Friday at a summit in Saudi Arabia that is also expected to confront conflicts across the Middle East and beyond.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also travelled to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah for a meeting of the 22-member Arab League, highlighting host Saudi Arabia's desire to wield global diplomatic clout.

Saudi Arabia hosted an Arab League summit on Friday in which Syrian President Bashar Assad was welcomed back after a 12-year suspension and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to rally support against Russia.

Russian airstrikes have left a swath of destruction across both countries, but in Syria they came at Assad's invitation and helped him cling to power through years of grinding civil war. Other Arab states have deepened ties with Moscow while remaining largely neutral on the Ukraine war.

Thousands of Jewish nationalists, some of them chanting "Death to Arabs" and other racist slogans, have paraded through the main Palestinian thoroughfare of Jerusalem's Old City, in an annual display that caused new friction between Jews and Palestinians in the tense city.

The marchers, who were overwhelmingly male Orthodox teens and young men, were celebrating "Jerusalem Day," which marks Israel's capture of the Old City 56 years ago. The Palestinians see the event as a provocation. Two years ago, the parade helped fuel an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.