Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez has called for freezing all U.S. cooperation with Saudi Arabia, delivering one of the strongest expressions yet of U.S. anger over Saudi oil-production cuts that serve to boost Russia in its war in Ukraine.

In a statement, Menendez specifically called for cutting off all arms sales and security cooperation — one of the underpinnings of the more than 70-year U.S. strategic partnership with the oil kingdom — beyond the minimum necessary to defend Americans and American interests.

The German government pledged Tuesday to provide more support to cities and towns struggling to house the more than 1.1 million refugees and migrants who have arrived in the country this year, mostly from war-torn Ukraine but also other countries such as Syria and Afghanistan.

After meeting with state and local officials, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said while the government already allocated federal real estate for tens of thousands of refugees earlier this year, it would immediately provide additional property for about 4,000 refugees to ease the current housing crisis. Faeser also promised financial support but did not give any concrete figures.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Tuesday asked French energy giant TotalEnergies to kick start gas exploration off its shores, after Israel said the two countries have reached a U.S.-mediated deal to settle their maritime border.

Lebanon's search for gas riches in the hydrocarbon-rich eastern Mediterranean had stalled since 2020 over competing claims with Israel over offshore gas fields.

Eager to admire colorful foliage, eat sushi and go shopping, droves of tourists from abroad began arriving in Japan on Tuesday, with the end of pandemic-fighting border restrictions that had been in place for more than two years.

"We got the news that we can finally come. We are really, really happy," said Nadine Lackmann, a German who was among the crowd of tourists arriving at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

Tunisians have been hit with soaring food prices and shortages of basic staples in recent weeks, threatening to turn simmering discontent in the North African country — the cradle of the Arab Spring protests — into larger turmoil.

Sugar, vegetable oil, rice and even bottled water periodically disappear from supermarkets and grocery stores. People stand in line for hours for these food essentials that have long been subsidized and are now increasingly available in rations only. When they do appear on the shelves, many people cannot afford to pay the staggering price for them.

Lebanon has launched an online platform to facilitate employment for its nationals in Qatar as the Gulf state prepares to stage the World Cup.

The move, just weeks before the World Cup kicks off on November 20, is aimed at helping to tackle spiraling unemployment in Lebanon as it suffers its worst ever financial crisis.

London-listed firm Energean has begun testing pipes between Israel and the Karish offshore gas field, a key step towards production from the eastern Mediterranean site, a source of friction between Israel and Lebanon.

U.S. President Joe Biden has effectively acknowledged the failure of one of his biggest and most humiliating foreign policy gambles: a fist-bump with the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, the crown prince associated with human rights abuses.

Biden's awkward encounter with Mohammed bin Salman in July was a humbling attempt to mend relations with the world's most influential oil power at a time when the US. was seeking its help in opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting surge in oil prices.

Two more depositors sought to forcefully withdraw their savings on Thursday in Lebanon.

Just south of Beirut in Khalde, a man tried but was unable to break into a Banque Libano-Française branch, according to depositors' groups, and has since left the scene.

Israel will reject Lebanon's amendments to a U.S.-drafted proposal on resolving a long-running maritime border dispute over gas-rich waters off the Lebanese and Israeli coasts.

A draft agreement floated by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein aims to settle competing claims over offshore gas fields and was delivered to Lebanese and Israeli officials at the weekend, following years of indirect negotiations.