Retired general Yair Golan spent a significant part of his military career serving in the occupied West Bank, protecting Jewish settlements. Today, he is one of their most vocal critics.

Golan, a former deputy military chief, is now a legislator with the dovish Meretz party, where he has repeatedly spoken out against settler violence against Palestinians.

Yemen lost its connection to the internet nationwide early Friday after Saudi-led airstrikes targeted the contested city of Hodeida, an advocacy group said, plunging the war-torn nation offline.

NetBlocks said the disruption began around 1 a.m. local and affected TeleYemen, the state-owned monopoly that controls internet access in the country. TeleYemen is now run by the Houthi rebels who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since late 2014.

The United States and Russia tried Friday to avert another devastating conflict in Europe, but the two powers' top diplomats warned no breakthrough was imminent as fears rise that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine.

Armed with seemingly intractable and diametrically opposed demands, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Geneva at what the American said was a "critical moment."

Militants from the Islamic State group launched sophisticated attacks in Syria and Iraq, including an attempt to break into a prison where suspected extremists are being held by U.S.-backed fighters, officials said Friday. Dozens of people were killed.

The separate attacks are believed to be some of the largest since IS lost the final sliver of territory it held nearly three years ago. In recent months, IS sleeper cells have become more active in both countries, claiming attacks that killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.

A rocket attack on a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters has killed six civilians and wounded over a dozen people, Syrian rescuers and a war monitor said. Both blamed U.S-backed Syrian Kurdish forces for the attack.

The town of Afrin has been under control of Turkey and its allied Syrian opposition fighters since 2018, following a Turkey-backed military operation that pushed Syrian Kurdish fighters and thousands of Kurdish residents from the area.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that talks with Iran over its nuclear program are at a "decisive moment," and warned that Washington and its allies may change tactics if a deal isn't reached in the coming weeks.

Blinken said that the longer Iran fails to comply with the 2015 Vienna accord — intended to rein in Tehran's nuclear program — the closer it would get to being able to build an atomic weapon.

Iran, Russia and China on Friday began a joint naval drill in the Indian Ocean aimed at boosting marine security, state media reported.

Iran's state TV said 11 of its vessels were joined by three Russian ships including a destroyer, and two Chinese vessels. Iran's Revolutionary Guard will also participate with smaller ships and helicopters.

New German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for a "paradigm shift" in the way the world approaches climate policy, saying his country would leverage its presidency of the Group of Seven industrial nations this year to push for standards to fight global warming.

Climate discussions have been a key theme this week at a World Economic Forum meeting, which is being held online after COVID-19 concerns delayed its annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland. It included a panel with U.S. special envoy on climate John Kerry and billionaire Bill Gates that featured ideas environmentalists and scientists have challenged: that innovations yet to be invented or used widely would help drastically reduce emissions.

Deep in the South Pacific, scientists have explored a rare stretch of pristine corals shaped like roses off the coast of Tahiti. The reef is thought to be one of the largest found at such depths and seems untouched by climate change or human activities.

Laetitia Hédouin said she first saw the corals during a recreational dive with a local diving club months earlier.

Tottenham staged the latest-ever comeback to win a Premier League game on Wednesday.

Manchester United's second-half turnaround was quite the surprise, too.