Nearing the end of a sweeping visit to assess the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma, French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to rebuild the wrecked island of St. Martin and diversify its economy away from tourism.

In further responses to complaints that his government didn't do enough to handle Irma's wrath, Macron also promised to evacuate residents of his country's Caribbean territories and provide services and shelter for those who choose to stay.

"Aleppo is in my eyes," says a billboard depicting President Bashar Assad looking out over two men and a boy repaving the main Saadallah al-Jabiri Square — once a front line in one of the deadliest episodes of the Syrian civil war.

The recapture of eastern Aleppo in December 2016 was a landmark victory for Assad's forces in the conflict, now in its seventh year, but it left the area in ruins.

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to maintain its restrictive policy on refugees.

The justices on Tuesday agreed to an administration request to block a lower court ruling that would have eased the refugee ban and allowed up to 24,000 refugees to enter the country before the end of October.

Israeli banks are contributing to the proliferation of West Bank settlements by providing loans and mortgages for construction there, violating their human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said in a report Wednesday.

The report said that Israeli law does not require banks to provide such services to the settlements, and urged them to distance themselves from such activities. It also urged the banks' shareholders to "ensure that their business relationships do not contribute to or benefit from" human rights violations.

"One more thing." With that phrase, Apple paid homage to its late co-founder Steve Jobs for the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone on Tuesday when it unveiled its latest — and, at $999, its most expensive — new version of the device, the iPhone X.

CEO Tim Cook called it "the biggest leap forward" since the first iPhone. ("X" is pronounced like the number 10, not the letter X.) It loses the home button, which revolutionized smartphones when it launched; offers an edge-to-edge screen; and will use facial recognition to unlock the phone.

Syrian opposition activists and witnesses said Tuesday that several thousand Syrians stranded on the border with Jordan have fled one makeshift camp for another, running from shelling and nearby fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces.

A Jordanian official confirmed that residents of Hadalat camp in the remote desert of southeastern Syria "were moved." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with reporters.

The leader of Iraq's Kurdish region defended an independence referendum planned for later this month during a visit Tuesday to the oil-rich Kirkuk province, the epicenter of a long-running dispute with the central government.

Iraq's parliament meanwhile rejected the referendum in a non-binding resolution, calling it "unconstitutional" and a threat to the country's unity.

Russia's foreign minister says Saudi Arabia assured him it backs a Moscow-led process of negotiating gradual local cease-fires in Syria, including the establishment of "de-escalation zones."

Sergey Lavrov spoke after a meeting Monday with his Jordanian counterpart and a day after talks with Saudi leaders.

Sen. John McCain says battling brain cancer is a challenge but that his prognosis is "pretty good."

Speaking in his first nationally televised interview since his diagnosis, McCain acknowledged the situation has been tough on his family but says he is optimistic. He says he has "faced other challenges" and he's "very confident about getting through this as well."

A media advocacy group accused Turkey's president of trying to silence the country's main opposition newspaper and free press as the second hearing of a trial against staff members of the paper began Monday.

Christophe Deloire, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, called the case against Turkey's pro-secular Cumhuriyet newspaper "a mockery of justice."