Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government is little more than a week old but it's already giving the Biden administration headaches.

Just days into its mandate, a controversial member of Netanyahu's right-wing Cabinet riled U.S. diplomats with a visit to a Jerusalem holy site that some believe may be harbinger of other contentious moves, including vast expansions of Jewish settlement construction on land claimed by the Palestinians.

The world's eight billion people Saturday ushered in 2023, bidding farewell to a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises, Lionel Messi's World Cup glory and the deaths of Queen Elizabeth, Pele and former pope Benedict.

Syria's Kurds could soon face a tripartite ultimatum to cede territory, analysts predict, as Syrian, Turkish and Russian defense ministers met this week in Moscow -- the first such talks since Syria's war began in 2011.

After five elections that have paralyzed Israeli politics for nearly four years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally returned to power with the government he has long coveted: a parliamentary majority of religious and far-right lawmakers who share his hard-line views toward the Palestinians and hostility toward Israel's legal system.

Yet Netanyahu's joy may be short-lived. Putting together his coalition proved to be surprisingly complicated, requiring nearly two months of painstaking negotiations and a series of legal maneuvers just to allow his partners to take office. Among them: newly created Cabinet positions with widespread authority over security and a law allowing a politician on parole for a criminal conviction to be a government minister.

Lebanon for more than three years has been mired in a deep financial, economic and social crisis, aggravated by a political deadlock.

Here is a recap since turmoil broke out in October 2019.

Even before an epic final won by Lionel Messi and Argentina, FIFA president Gianni Infantino was calling it "the best World Cup ever" in Qatar.

From leaping from his seat in the VIP box to consoling crestfallen players on the pitch, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a wide-ranging performance at the World Cup final that was not to everyone's taste. 

The 44-year-old was an unmissable presence at the game at the Lusail stadium in Qatar on Sunday, even making an appearance in the team's changing room to deliver an emotional post-game pep talk.

France and Morocco have a relatively relaxed post-colonial relationship but ties are still not without tensions that risk being exposed when their national football sides clash in a World Cup semi final in Qatar.

The relationship France has with Morocco is not nearly as traumatic as with neighboring Algeria, which fought Paris in a bloody seven-year War of Independence that scars both nations to this day.

Having launched a new bid for the White House, Donald Trump has not been met with the energy he had been hoping for.

Lebanon has been without a president for over a month, its legislators unable to agree on a new head of state.

The impasse is holding up a range of initiatives, from putting into place structural reforms for an International Monetary Fund program to allowing the country's state-owned television channel to broadcast the World Cup.